More Chinese IP theft by immigrants allowed access to American technology. And yet we're supposed to believe that China, who has stolen much of the technology that it has implemented with slave labor in order to compete on a global market that catered to them somehow has a moral superiority or immunity from the failures of the West.
How Do You Steal an Airplane? One Piece at a Time
Looking to reduce China’s reliance on Western aviation technologies, Beijing had spies spend years accumulating knowledge about the industry’s secrets.
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By
Jordan Robertson,
Victor Yvellez, and
Drake Bennett
February 13, 2026 at 5:01 AM UTC
China is rapidly closing the gap with the US as the world’s biggest passenger aviation market, but it remains almost entirely dependent on the US and Europe for advanced airplane technologies. China has worked for nearly two decades to change this through homegrown innovation and, according to US authorities, rampant intellectual property theft.
That secret-stealing mission has fallen to China’s Ministry of State Security, which is believed to be one of the world’s largest intelligence agencies. Some estimates put the size of the MSS at hundreds of thousands of employees—more than the FBI and the CIA combined.
The targets of the MSS’s industrial espionage, according to US authorities, span the supply chain for modern jetliners. They include tiny, specialized components like spark plugs that play a critical safety role and also some of the most complicated and technologically advanced machines on Earth: the jet engines themselves. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that “the accusations by the US are completely fabricated.”
Bloomberg’s reporting has focused on a sprawling FBI investigation into a specific unit within the MSS, the Sixth Bureau. The bureau has been tasked with stealing these secrets that China needs to build its own commercial planes—one piece at a time.
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Auxiliary power units
These small engines sit in an aircraft’s tail cone, providing electrical power when it’s on the ground. Evidence the FBI gathered found an Arizona-based engineer at
Honeywell International Inc., a leading maker of APUs, flew to China repeatedly over 20 years, providing confidential information, including engineering designs, to the government.
Aircraft body
The Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, whose C919 planes began domestic flights in 2023, has been seeking certification to fly into Europe, attempting to cut into the duopoly of
Boeing Co. and
Airbus SE. Bloomberg reporting has
identified spies and Chinese intelligence officers who are central to the country’s efforts to leapfrog Western incumbents.
High-lift systems (flap controllers)
Embedded in the wings, these technologies control the flaps that regulate the degree of elevation when the plane takes off. FBI evidence shows that a UK engineer specializing in these systems was working with Chinese spies who were trying to get him to provide information about them.
Detonators and spark plugs
Aviation safety systems rely on these devices to trigger fire extinguishers, inflate escape slides and test jet engines in emergency scenarios. According to the FBI, targets of a hacking campaign linked to Chinese spies included Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Co., a leading maker of the devices.
Temperature, pressure and fluid sensors
Placed throughout the plane, these sensors monitor systems for potentially dangerous readings. The FBI’s files and information from private-sector security researchers show that another victim of Chinese hacking was Pennsylvania-based
Ametek Inc., whose products include these sensors for aircraft engines.
Navigation and altitude systems
These systems are used to determine a plane’s coordinates, speed, altitude and other critical flight and safety details. One of China’s targets was a senior Boeing engineer who specialized in this technology, according to the FBI data.
Engines
Among the highest-value espionage targets are jet engines, a field the US and Europe dominate. The FBI uncovered evidence revealing how spies targeted
General Electric Co., France’s
Safran SA and others to help Chinese engineers design and build competing engines.
