US and allies target SA flying school for its links to China

14 Jul 2024

Is the company overstepping the mark by training Chinese military pilots, or is it an innocent business being unfairly hounded by the US?

Is a flight school based in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, a sinister front organisation that is using the skills of ex-Nato pilots to clandestinely train Chinese military pilots who could one day shoot down US and other Western military aircraft?

Or is it a small and harmless bunch of ex-pilots trying to use their skills to make a legitimate buck and being bullied by the US and its allies?

This is the critical question at the heart of a quiet but intense tussle that is still playing out between the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) and Washington and its allies.

The US Department of Commerce put TFASA and two other South African companies – AVIC International Flight Training Academy and Pearl Coral 1173 CC, which appear to be related to TFASA – on its export control list a year ago, which means any US company that wants to export to them has to get clearance from the US government.

Last week, the US extended these sanctions by also imposing export restrictions on two Chinese companies and one British company because of their ties to TFASA. The US has imposed these restrictions because it says TFASA and these companies are training China’s military forces using Western and Nato resources.

Read more in Daily Maverick: SA flight school accuses US of harassing it in row over training Chinese military pilots

“This activity is contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the US,” last week’s notice said.

And it’s not only the US that believes that China is using TFASA surreptitiously to bolster the capabilities of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

In a statement issued last week on behalf of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said: “The PLA is using private companies in South Africa and China to hire former fighter pilots from Canada, France, Germany, the UK, Australia, the US and other Western nations to train PLA Air Force and Navy aviators.

“The PLA wants the skills and expertise of these individuals to make its own military air operations more capable while gaining insight into Western air tactics, techniques and procedures. The insight the PLA gains from Western military talent threatens the safety of the targeted recruits, their fellow service members and US and allied security.” The statement specifically cited TFASA.

The Five Eyes intelligence alliance comprises the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

TFASA has not denied that it has employed some ex-Nato and Western military pilots to train Chinese military and other pilots. But it says on its website it has never deliberately tried to headhunt serving personnel from Nato countries.

The flight school told Daily Maverick: “All TFASA training materials have always been either open source or provided by clients. TFASA does not impart any protected or classified Western tactics, techniques or procedures to any clients.

“None of TFASA’s staff is in possession of any legally or operationally sensitive information relating to the national security interests of any country, whether those from where its employees are drawn or to which it provides training. TFASA has operated with the full knowledge of Nato defence and security agencies for over a decade,” it said.

The flight school said it had not broken any laws in the US or elsewhere, and also that it was in no way unique.

‘One of many similar providers’

It told Daily Maverick that it was “one of many providers of aviation training services to China, including companies based in the US, Canada and Europe. These companies provide training to exactly the same standard to similar customers as TFASA, without facing the same unfair harassment from US government agencies.

“TFASA notes that over the past 10 years almost 70% of Chinese pilot cadets who received training internationally did so via the US (over the period 2010–2021 the US trained and qualified over 14,000 Chinese pilots),” it said, adding that “all Chinese pilot cadets trained by TFASA are drawn from, and return to, exactly the same talent pool as those trained by the US”.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in 2022 that former UK defence personnel were being recruited by private companies contracted by the PLA, noting that TFASA was one of the largest providers of this training.

Then, in 2023, the National Security Act gave the UK the ability to prosecute former military personnel engaging in activity contrary to the act.

TFASA says on its website that, after these legal changes, it “decided to end the employment of all UK nationals”.

It says the US began to impair its business operations after the school refused – despite “inducements” – in 2013 to provide the US State Department and other government agencies with information about its clients.

According to media reports, TFASA has claimed that the US tried to persuade the company to provide intelligence about China. TFASA has also claimed that the US is targeting it to give American flight schools a competitive advantage.

And it insists it is acting fully within the law, both in South Africa and wherever else it operates.

It also claims that the sanctions the US imposed last year have had no impact on its operations because it does not employ US citizens or deal with US companies.

Military analysts told Daily Maverick that, “in a sense, nobody is wrong” in this dispute. TFASA appeared to have acted legally but it “fell afoul of geopolitics”.

Although TFASA insisted that its trainers had never revealed any military secrets, this was hard to prove, they said.

Some analysts felt that TFASA had been caught in the changing tide of geopolitics. Ten years ago, the West didn’t care what the school did because China was not considered a threat. “Over the past five years that view has profoundly changed, with the US, EU and UK now recognising that China’s ambitions are not as benign as was assumed,” one said.

“That means sanctions, trade bans, etc. And anyone caught in the middle can get their fingers burnt even if they did nothing wrong going into it.”

However, another analyst said that TFASA should have been smarter about realising that the tide had changed.

“They knew they were skirting close to the line and should’ve been expecting tides to turn at some point. Don’t insert yourself into the geopolitics between major powers unless you’re willing to play big boy games,” was the lesson to be learnt, the analyst said.

Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that TFASA’s operating licence is under threat. Daily Maverick asked the South African Civil Aviation Authority to confirm this.

Its spokesperson, Sisa Majola, said: “The matter between the SACAA and TFASA is currently the subject of an ongoing court matter. This therefore means the matter is sub judice and we cannot engage on it further at this time.” DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

You may write a letter to the DM168 editor at [email protected] sharing your views on this story. Letters will be curated, edited and considered for publication in our weekly newspaper on our readers’ views page.

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‘One of many similar providers’