The Aviation Industry Corp of China, (AVIC) is trying to gain access to advanced technology by buying minority stakes in major American aircraft manufacturers, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday.
The Chinese state-run aircraft and missile manufacturer has been linked to past espionage, and its current attempts were detected by American intelligence agencies several months ago, according to Trump administration officials.
The increased concern comes as AVIC already has bought U.S. aviation support firms and those involved in commercial aviation.
"AVIC is a bad actor that is one of several state-owned enterprises that is working to mop up western technology," an administration official told The Washington Free Beacon.
International Assessment and Strategy Center senior fellow Rick Fisher agreed that the AVIC efforts are dangerous.
"If the Chinese become significant minority stakeholders in U.S. defense-aerospace or U.S. defense contractors, their strategy may be to have Chinese officers appointed to the leadership of these companies, constituting a very crude but obvious espionage threat," Fisher said. "If such Chinese, or loyal-to-China officers have access to company data bases, or even 'keys' to the headquarters building, that poses a significant espionage threat."
He emphasized that the U.S. government should prohibit any stake by a Chinese state-run company in any American defense or aerospace firm.
Boeing spokesman Chaz Bickers said he was not aware of AVIC’s attempts to buy a minority stake in the company, while a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin declined to comment. Other aircraft manufacturers also did not return emails.
But the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental has warned in a report on Chinese technology acquisition that Beijing is posing risks to American national security.
"China's transformation to be the manufacturer for the world means more supply chains are owned by China which creates risks to U.S. military technology and operations," the report said.
China has already managed to buy general aviation companies, tech transfers that have allowed Beijing’s defense industry to achieve a breakthrough in indigenous production of turbine and piston aircraft engines.
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