US cracks down on flight training for Chinese military pilots with export restrictions
- 43 entities, including a security firm previously run by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, were added to the entity list over national security concerns
- The Test Flying Academy of South Africa, a flight school under scrutiny for recruiting UK ex-military pilots to train Chinese fliers, was also targeted
The Biden administration on Monday added 43 entities to an export control list, including Frontier Services Group Ltd, a security and aviation company previously run by Erik Prince, for training Chinese military pilots and other activities that threaten US national security.
The Test Flying Academy of South Africa, a flight school under scrutiny by authorities in Britain for recruiting British ex-military pilots to train Chinese military fliers, was also added to the US Commerce Department’s Entity List.
Companies on the list are restricted from receiving US exports for activities deemed contrary to US interests.
The new listings include Frontier Services Group sites in China, Kenya, Laos and the United Arab Emirates; TFASA units in South Africa, China, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom; and aerospace and defence conglomerate Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) entities in China and South Africa.
The companies could not immediately be reached for comment.
In addition to recruiting Western pilots to train People’s Liberation Army pilots on Western aircraft manoeuvres, companies were added to the list for acquiring US-origin items in support of China’s military modernisation, including hypersonic weapons development and hypersonic flight modelling, the Commerce Department said in a release.
