For more than a decade, China has been building high-tech fighter jets, reportedly using the stolen intellectual property of advanced American technology.
According to reports from Fox News Digital, Beijing began developing the J-20 stealth fighter in 2008. The fighter jets were built for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force with the goal of developing a warplane fleet capable of taking on American fighter jets.
James Anderson, the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, explained that China’s “espionage efforts” in acquiring the stolen U.S. intellectual property “are more advanced than it otherwise would be.”
Three years after Beijing first began building the J20, it took its first flight in 2011; six years later, the fighter jet was deployed into service in the Chinese military.
Reports of intellectual property theft first surfaced in 2015 when the Associated Press reported that some of China’s technology “may well have come from the U.S. itself.”
However, according to U.S. military experts, China’s J20 fighter jet is sufficient proof that China has been engaging in intellectual property theft for decades.
Anderson continues to explain that China “profited greatly from their thievery over the years” but wouldn’t speculate about how the J-20 would stack up against the U.S.’s F-22 Raptor Jet.
However, Anderson noted that China’s espionage often uses “old-fashioned” or “low-tech,” including the use of “honey traps,” spies, and bribes for American University academics, contractors, and government officials.
Anderson also explained that China uses advanced methods to steal critical military information.
Matt McInnis, a fellow for the Institute for the Study of War’s China program, explained that China had always been hyper-fixated on the West’s “more sophisticated jet engines” and understanding them.
