Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 25th October 2022 to Question 65606, on China: Armed Forces, on what date his Department first became aware of ex-Armed Forces personnel being hired by the Chinese Government to train the Chinese armed forces.

The Department became aware of an isolated case in 2019 when a UK defence industry employee was head-hunted to support Peoples Republic of China military aviation programmes. Since then, we have investigated other cases, and when practicable taken necessary measures to deter and dissuade such recruitment. Following the easing of the COVID pandemic, the scale and pace of the recruitment escalated, and it is right that we now expose this threat more widely. We are not prepared to comment on the detail of individual cases. Defence Ministers have been informed of significant developments along the way.