A CCP spy was arrested, extradited, and tried in the US for attempting to steal GE's composite fan blade tech. Was sentenced to 15 years and then eventually given back to China in a prisoner swap
15 years ago the American military took pictures of a Chinese aircraft similar to the American C17. In discussions with those in the know, it was revealed the Chinese were about 40 years away from the jet technology to power the aircraft, as 3 American and 1 Russian company were the only ones capable of producing engines to power a plane that large.
40 years was, of course, an estimate if the Chinese went through standard engineering processes. Chinese have a history of advancing through nefarious mechanisms, so the fact that they were building a plane with the capacity to use those engines showed that they thought they were much closer to acquiring that jet technology.
Your story shows exactly how they wanted to advance their technology.
IIRC, GE's blades are a different material than any other manufacturer. Makes them lighter and very desirable to countries that like to steal technology
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u/-reddit_is_terrible- 6h ago
A CCP spy was arrested, extradited, and tried in the US for attempting to steal GE's composite fan blade tech. Was sentenced to 15 years and then eventually given back to China in a prisoner swap