No Taiwan air force pilots helped train PLA forces, general assures Taipei lawmakers
- Concerns raised after BBC report says British pilots lured with huge pay packages to help train PLA on Western war strategies
- Authorities keep tabs on all Taiwanese veterans long after they end active service, defence minister and lieutenant general tell lawmakers
“Until now, no one has done this [trained PLA pilots] according to our information,” Lieutenant General Yen Yu-hsien said after being pressed by lawmakers over whether any ex-Taiwanese air force pilots had been lured to work for the PLA, as some former British military veterans have reportedly been.
Addressing a legislative meeting in Taipei on Wednesday, Yen also said the Taiwanese defence ministry had full knowledge of the whereabouts of all veterans after they retired from the military, which included tracking those who had joined Chinese commercial carriers.
His comments followed media reports that the PLA had offered huge sums of money to retired British air force pilots to pass on their expertise to the Chinese armed forces.
The BBC, citing unnamed officials, reported on Tuesday that up to 30 British military pilots were thought to have gone to mainland China to train members of the PLA, drawn by offers of as much as US$270,000.
The report prompted British authorities to issue an intelligence alert warning all former and serving pilots against taking up such offers, with the defence ministry saying it was “taking decisive steps to stop [such] Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK armed forces pilots”.
According to the report, the PLA expected the training to help Chinese forces understand how Western warplanes and pilots operate.