The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on Wednesday, the 25th, that it has arrested a former US Air Force pilot who secretly went to China without government permission and trained Chinese Air Force pilots.

The Department of Justice stated in a press release that Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., 65, who had been staying in China since December 2023 and recently returned to the US, was arrested in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

He is accused of conspiring with foreign nationals to provide training to Chinese Air Force fighter jet pilots without the permission of the US Department of State.

"The US Air Force trained Major Brown as an elite fighter pilot and entrusted him with national defense. Now, he is accused of training Chinese military pilots," said John A. Eisenberg, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

"Providing training to foreign militaries, whether by US military personnel or civilians, is illegal without the permission of the Department of State. The National Security Division will use all means necessary to protect our military advantage and hold accountable those who violate the AECA (Arms Export Control Act)," he added.

According to the indictment, Brown served in the US Air Force for 24 years, commanding units responsible for nuclear weapon delivery systems, performing various combat missions, and serving as a flight instructor and simulator instructor for a variety of fighter and attack aircraft.

After retiring as a Major in 1996, he worked as a cargo pilot and later contracted with US defense contractors, serving as a simulator instructor for the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft and F-35 Lightning II fighter jets.

According to the FBI, Brown began negotiating training terms for Chinese Air Force pilots with an individual named Stephen Su Bin in August 2023. He then traveled to China in December of the same year and began his training duties for the Chinese Air Force pilots. He remained in China until his return to the US in early February 2026.

Stephen Su Bin, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the Central District of California in 2016 to charges of conspiring to hack into the computer networks of major US defense contractors and attempting to steal sensitive military and export-controlled data for China. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Su Bin and his company, PRC Road Technology Company, were added to the US Department of Commerce's Entity List in 2014.

Roman Rozhavsky, FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence and Espionage, stated in the same press release, "This serves as a warning that the FBI and its partners will rigorously prosecute anyone who collaborates with hostile forces that seek to harm our military and threaten our national security."

He added, "The Chinese government is exploiting the expertise of active and former US military personnel to advance its own military modernization."

In June 2024, the United States, along with the governments of Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, issued a joint warning stating that "the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) continues to target active and former military personnel from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states and other Western countries to enhance PLA capabilities."

By Hong Seong-gu, Editor-in-Chief, NNP / Special Correspondent, NNP info@newsandpost.com