WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) sent a letter to Acting TSA Administrator Ms. Ha Nguyen McNeill raising concerns about how American flight schools are quietly training Chinese nationals, potentially benefitting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military aviation pipeline.
Read more about the letter here.
Read the full letter here or see below:
Dear Ms. McNeil:
I write today to express concern over Chinese nationals receiving flight training in the United States. As you know, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) employs a strategy of Military-Civil Fusion (MCF), which deliberately erases lines between the military and the commercial. As one study put it, MCF has “helped Chinese enterprises, both state-owned and nominally private, to capture significant global market share in advanced industries, while also concentrating the party’s capacity to mobilize national resources in times of emergency and war.”
The aviation sector is no exception. Speaking at the 70th anniversary of the Chinese aviation industry, former Vice Premier Liu He promised that “China will transform itself into an aviation power,” both achieving self-sufficiency through domestic innovation and enriching its talent pool. As Xi Jinping put it, echoing former Premier Wen Jiabao, “enabling China’s large aircraft to soar through the skies embodies the nation’s will, the people’s dreams, and their aspirations.”
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
