Australia Arrests Former US Military Pilot As West Seeks To Block China's Recruitment Drive

Acting on a request from the United States, Australian Federal Police has arrested a former U.S. military pilot and flight instructor who worked in China, according to Reuters.

The arrest, which was made on Oct. 21, came amid multiple cases of Western governments investigating cases of Beijing's attempt to lure former Western military pilots into training People's Liberation Army (PLA) pilots.

The Australian authorities arrested Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, a former U.S. citizen, in the rural town of Orange in New South Wales. He was denied bail and sent to the nearby Bathurst jail. The arrest took place ahead of formal proceedings for extradition to the U.S.

Duggan relocated to Australia following a decade-long stint in the U.S. military. He then started a business called Top Gun Tasmania, the company's website reportedly said. He moved to Beijing in 2014 and sold the business soon after, as per the outlet, whose report also cited company records as well as aviation sources who confirmed that Duggan hired former U.S. and British military pilots to offer tourists joyrides in fighter jets.

There have been multiple reports in Western media speculating that Beijing might be offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to former Western air force pilots to encourage them to train Chinese military pilots.

It was reported recently that at least 30 former British RAF pilots have taken advantage of the "generous" recruitment packages offered by Beijing to provide training for Chinese military pilots. The U.K. government is now looking to introduce a two-strike rule, which will result in British pilots being given one warning before they are prosecuted.

Similar cases of Beijing's recruitment of Western military pilots have also been reported in Canada, France and Australia. On Oct. 21, Le Figaro, a French daily newspaper, published a testimony of a French pilot approached by Beijing to train the Chinese air force. The publication reportedly claimed that China had been in search of French instructors for aircraft carrier landings.

Given the rapid pace of its massive military modernization, China is struggling to find enough trained pilots to operate fighter jets and is therefore seeking to speed up the pilot training program.

According to an article published in Ordnance Industry Science Technology, a Chinese military magazine, earlier this month, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has been having a hard time meeting the increased demand for qualified ship-borne fighter jet pilots to operate specially-made J-15 jets for aircraft carries.