U.S. limits exports to flight schools, others for training Chinese military pilots (updated)

Frontier Services

12/06/2023 17:06

(Adds more companies placed on list)
    By Karen Freifeld
       June 12 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Monday
added 43 entities to an export control list, including Frontier
Services Group Ltd, a security and aviation company previously
run by Erik Prince, for training Chinese military pilots and
other activities that threaten U.S. national security. 
    The Test Flying Academy of South Africa, a flight school
under scrutiny by authorities in Britain for recruiting British
ex-military pilots to train Chinese military fliers, was also
added to the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List.
    Companies on the list are restricted from receiving U.S.
exports for activities deemed contrary to U.S. interests. 
    The new listings include Frontier Services Group sites in
China, Kenya, Laos and the United Arab Emirates; TFASA units in
South Africa, China, the United Arab Emirates and the United
Kingdom; and AVIC entities in China and South Africa. 
    The aviation-related companies were listed for providing
training to Chinese military pilots using Western and NATO
sources, according to a rule posted for the Federal Register.
    Thirty-one Chinese entities in total were added to the list,
some for acquiring U.S.-origin items in support of China's
military modernization, such as hypersonic weapons development. 
    Shanghai Supercomputing Technology Co Ltd was added for 
offering cloud-based supercomputing capabilities to support
hypersonics research.       
    Nine Chinese and Pakistani companies were added based on
their contributions to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program and
other weapons contributions.
    And two companies were added for enabling China to carry out
human rights abuses, including as part of its repression of the
Ugyhur Muslims and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang,
western China.
    U.N. experts and rights groups estimate that over a million
people, mainly Uyghurs and Muslim minorities, have been detained
in camps in China's western region of Xinjiang in recent years,
with many saying they were subject to ideological training and
abuse.
       China has denied all accusations of abuse.  
   The U.S. also removed Fiber Optic Solutions in Latvia from
the Entity List. Fiber Optic Solutions, which produces fiber
optic gyroscopes and other equipment, was added in December for
its contributions to the Russian military and/or defense
industrial base. 
    Erik Prince, a private security executive, was the founder
of the security firm Blackwater. According to his LinkedIn
profile, Prince was vice chair of Frontier Services Group from
2014 to 2021.

 (Reporting by Karen Freifeld
Editing by Chris Sanders and Alistair Bell)
 ((karen.freifeld@thomsonreuters.com; +1(646) 223-6921;))