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Australia promises 20 years in jail for training Chinese pilots; SA school targeted isn`t worried

Source: News24, 15/09/2023

Australia`s defence minister Richard Marles introduced an amendment to parliament that seeks to introduce a 20-year prison term for providing military training to a foreign military.
Pat Hoelscher/AFP
• Australia plans to send any resident who trains a foreign military to jail for up to 20 years.
• Draft legislation seems to have the Test Flying Academy of South Africa firmly in its crosshairs.
• The company says the change will not affect its operations in any way just as US sanctions didn`t.
Australia plans to introduce tough new penalties for any resident involved in training a foreign military not closely allied to that country.
But the South African company the law seems to target says it will not be affected.
Australia`s defence minister Richard Marles on Thursday introduced an amendment to Australia`s parliament that seeks to introduce a penalty of 20 years in prison for providing military training or tactics to a foreign military or government body, including hybrid civilian and military organisations, or state-owned companies, without authorisation.
Australia`s close partners Britain, the United States, New Zealand, and Canada will be exempt, officials said, as will training for the United Nations or for humanitarian relief.
Marles said the law will strengthen criminal laws in Australia that already ban the provision of military training to a foreign government by former Australian defence staff. It will extend that ban to any citizen or permanent resident who provides such training.
The change seems to have the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) firmly in its crosshairs. But, if so, Marles may be disappointed. TFASA told News24 it had no Australians on its staff, and that the change would not affect its operations
In November 2022 Australian police raided the home of TFASA chief operating officer Keith Hartley, a former British military pilot. Authorities said they suspected him of organising the training of Chinese military pilots, but he was never charged.
The raid came a month after the United Kingdom issued an official `threat alert` about TFASA`s activities.
TFASA has been openly training Chinese pilots out of an Oudtshoorn base since 2002, and was formed with the blessing of the South African government with just such training in mind.
The company recruits pilots trained by NATO countries, but says it has protocols in place to ensure sensitive military information is never shared.
Britain too trained Chinese pilots, at a time when relations between the two countries were growing closer. But with the United Kingdom and United States increasingly considering China a threat, such cooperation has fallen away.
Unlike Australia, Britain has not yet sought to update its legislation accordingly.
In June, the United States added TFASA, and other aviation companies in countries such as Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, to an `entity list` of individuals and companies thought to be a possible threat to American security or its foreign policy.
The US does not consider a listing to amount to sanctions, but American companies that do business with listed entities anywhere in the world could face criminal charges.
At the time, TFASA said it did no business in the United States, and that its operations would not be affected by the move.
It also pointed out that the majority of foreign training of Chinese pilots happened in the United States.

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