China built its fifth-generation fighter jet by copying US military technology, and it could keep the pace of growth for the US military unless more is done to protect sensitive weapons information, Fox News Digital experts say.
“What we do know is that due to spying efforts, [China’s] The J-20 is more advanced than it would otherwise be, and that’s the big deal here.” — Former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson said in an interview.
“They profited from their theft for many years,” he said. “They put it to good use and created an advanced fifth-generation fighter,” noting that “it’s hard to tell, outside of actual combat,” how the J-20 fits. against the American F-22 Raptor fighter.
China began developing the J-20 in 2008 as part of a plan to develop a new fighter jet that could compete with the US. The aircraft first flew in 2011 and entered service in 2017.
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In 2015, reports began to come in about the aircraft’s technology and capabilities. notice the similarity between him and American fighters, and an Associated Press report said that “some of his technology, as it turns out, may well have come from the United States itself.”
China now has a fifth-generation stealth fighter similar to the US F-22, which has further narrowed what was once an almost insurmountable gap between the two militaries in terms of technological capabilities – all thanks to ongoing intellectual property theft. The gap between US and Chinese military technology has received renewed attention as tensions between the two countries continue to rise and officials continue to discuss Possible invasion of Taiwanwhich may include a US military response.
The F-22 Raptor (left) and the Chinese J-20 are fifth-generation fighters. (Paul Kroc/AFP via Getty Images/File | Fu Tian/China News Service via Getty Images/File)
James Hess, a professor at the American Public University System (APUS) School of Security and Global Studies, said the US must ultimately grapple with China’s “philosophical differences” and willingness to do what is “best for China.”
“You can even look at the history of China with a general culture of things that made society better, rather than worrying about it,” Hess said. “This lack of enforcement is probably more cultural… there is definitely a cultural aspect to it.”
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“There is an author who said, ‘Theft of a book is an elegant crime,’ so you have this mentality that knowledge is not necessarily considered theft of knowledge … by no means is it considered a capital crime,” he continued. “What you do is perceived as something good.”
Anderson explained that China uses a range of spy tricks from the “old-fashioned” and “low-tech” use of spies and honey traps and bribery to recruit US contractors, university scientists and government personnel, to more advanced methods such as cyber activity to obtain key data on military systems.
An F-22 Raptor is shown in this undated image provided by Lockheed Martin. (Lockheed Martin via Getty Images)
“Unfortunately, they’ve had some success with that,” Anderson said, adding that they’ve spent “significantly more than a decade” constantly chasing the Joint Strike Fighter they used to design and build the J-20.
“It saves the Chinese time and money. We are essentially subsidizing a portion of their R&D budget because they are successfully stealing some of our secrets,” Anderson said. “Ultimately, this puts our men and women at greater risk on the battlefield.”
Matt McInnis, a senior program fellow at the Institute for the Study of China’s Warfare, stressed that China is “focused … almost more than anything” on getting jet propulsion technology after a “decade-long struggle” to keep up with American and Western weapons. .
“As someone who has been watching China for a long time, it’s always a joke… will the Chinese ever be able to produce own jet engineMcInnis said. “So they gradually became more independent in building jet engines for their more advanced aircraft.”
J-20 fighters (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
According to McInnis, the desire to “understand more complex jet engines” in the West remains an important driving force behind Chinese espionage.
He pointed to 2022 Yanjun Xu casea Chinese spy who was convicted of attempting to steal the trade secrets of several US aviation and aerospace companies, including stealing patented aircraft engine fan technology.
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US prosecutors said Xu began recruiting experts from companies like GE Aviation in Cincinnati back in 2013, but lawyers say he was not a spy and never asked for trade secrets.
“It was really a huge win for the United States to be able to solve this particular case, but at the same time, we are still looking at what China is trying to do with technology, espionage,” McInnis said, adding that China is “still, probably the biggest threat to US national security.”
McInnis also mentioned recent efforts that included recruiting ex-British pilots to advise and train PLA Air Force pilots, which provided “another way they tried to acquire Western technical knowledge”.
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“The Chinese baseline of what the Russians gave them and what they were able to steal from us and from European manufacturers led them to a gap between us and Chinese jet technology in perhaps only 10 or 15 years, whereas before they lagged behind us by 20 -30 years.