China’s military sought to enlist veteran Western pilots into a program that aimed to improve its ability to fly planes from aircraft carriers, among other capabilities that could be useful in the event of a conflict with the U.S., including potentially over Taiwan, according to official documents, legal filings, emails and people familiar with the matter.
The program, some details of which were first revealed by the U.K. Defense Ministry in October, involved close collaboration between China and a South African flight academy that recruited former military pilots with expertise in areas where China’s military lags behind Western counterparts.
