China Is Covertly Targeting and Recruiting US Military Talent to Train Its Troops, General Warns

China is accelerating a secret campaign to shore up the skills of its People’s Liberation Army by learning from current and former U.S. troops — often by recruiting them through third-party companies offering lucrative consulting jobs, a top general warned Air Force personnel Friday.

Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who heads the U.S. Air Force and has been nominated by President Biden to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of the increasingly common tactic in a document distributed to Air Force personnel and obtained by the Washington Post.

Foreign companies contracted by the Chinese government are “targeting and recruiting US and NATO-trained military talent across specialties and career fields,” the memo reportedly read in part.

Popular targets of China include pilots, as well as former aerospace ground equipment maintainers and landing-signals officers, an agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigation told the Washington Post on condition of anonymity.

“By essentially training the trainer, many of those who accept contracts with these foreign companies are eroding our national security, putting the very safety of their fellow servicemembers and the country at risk,” the memo continued, urging troops to speak up if they’ve been recruited to train foreign forces.

The companies approach both active U.S. service members and veterans, typically offering consulting, training or advising gigs — but without always revealing that the trainees are tied to the Chinese military, according to the general.

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