WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., sent a letter to Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill raising concerns about how American flight schools are training Chinese nationals, potentially benefitting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military aviation pipeline.
Banks shared his worries as the country has speeded up policies in its efforts to get more pilots in the air, according to Banks’ letter.
Read the full letter below:
Dear Ms. McNeil:
I write today to express concern over Chinese nationals receiving flight training in the United States. As you know, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) employs a strategy of Military-Civil Fusion (MCF), which deliberately erases lines between the military and the commercial. As one study put it, MCF has “helped Chinese enterprises, both state-owned and nominally private, to capture significant global market share in advanced industries, while also concentrating the party’s capacity to mobilize national resources in times of emergency and war.”