Former U.S. Air Force Pilot Arrested for Training Chinese Military — Case Reveals Deeper Role of Notorious Vancouver-Based Chinese Spy

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot with decades of experience flying some of America’s most advanced combat aircraft has been arrested and charged with secretly training pilots for the Chinese military — a case that also alleges a notorious Chinese spy, previously based in Vancouver and prosecuted by the FBI for stealing sensitive U.S. defense technology, played a far deeper role in Beijing’s military espionage networks than was previously known.

That revelation, national security analysts say, reveals the breadth and persistence of Beijing’s strategy to close the gap with Western air power.

Gerald Eddie Brown, Jr., 65, known by the call sign “Runner,” was arrested Wednesday in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and charged by criminal complaint with providing and conspiring to provide defense services to Chinese military pilots without authorization, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. He is expected to make his initial appearance before a magistrate judge in the Southern District of Indiana today. In a post on social media, FBI Director Kash Patel called it “a major story.”

At the center of the recruitment operation described in the complaint is Stephen Su Bin — a Chinese national and businessman who once operated out of Vancouver, British Columbia, and whose name has haunted U.S. national security circles for more than a decade.

Su Bin was indicted by a federal grand jury in California in 2014 for allegedly conspiring with two hackers based in China to break into the computer networks of major U.S. defense contractors, including Boeing, and steal sensitive, export-controlled data on advanced military aircraft — among them the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the C-17 military transport. He was arrested in Canada that same year at the request of U.S. authorities and, after a lengthy extradition battle, pleaded guilty in 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. After serving his four-year sentence, it is believed he returned to China.

Now, according to the complaint against Brown, Su Bin appears to have resumed his role in China’s aviation intelligence ecosystem — this time not as a cyber thief, but as a broker connecting Chinese military institutions with former Western fighter pilots willing to share their hard-won operational knowledge in person.

For Dennis Molinaro, author of Under Assault and a scholar who has closely examined China’s sustained operations in Canada, Su Bin’s reappearance illuminates the entire case. “Su Bin was central to one of the most consequential aviation espionage cases of the last decade, targeting U.S. defense contractors and stealing sensitive military data,” Molinaro wrote following the arrest. His involvement in a talent-recruitment operation — years after his U.S. prison sentence — signals, Molinaro argues, the durability of Chinese intelligence networks.

“What this shows is continuity,” Molinaro wrote. “A figure previously involved in cyber theft of advanced aircraft information now appears connected to efforts to obtain direct training and operational knowledge from former Western military pilots.”

That evolution — from stealing blueprints to recruiting instructors — reflects a maturing strategy. “China’s military modernization strategy has not relied on a single method,” Molinaro wrote. “It combines cyber intrusion, industrial espionage, and talent recruitment to accelerate capability development.”

“Runner” Brown’s credentials were extraordinary.

He served more than 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, leaving active duty in 1996 with the rank of Major. During his career, he commanded units with responsibility for nuclear weapons delivery systems, led combat missions, and served as a fighter pilot instructor on some of the Air Force’s most iconic aircraft — the F-4 Phantom II, the F-15 Eagle, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and the A-10 Thunderbolt II. After leaving the military, he worked as a commercial cargo pilot and most recently as a contract simulator instructor for two U.S. defense contractors, training American military pilots on the A-10 and the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

It was that elite pedigree — built entirely at taxpayer expense and in service to the United States — that allegedly made him valuable to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

“Gerald Brown, a former F-35 Lightning II instructor pilot with decades of experience flying U.S. military aircraft, allegedly betrayed his country by training Chinese pilots to fight against those he swore to protect,” said Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. “The Chinese government continues to exploit the expertise of current and former members of the U.S. armed forces to modernize China’s military capabilities.”

According to the complaint, Brown began arranging the terms of his contract in August 2023, using a co-conspirator to negotiate with Su Bin directly. Brown was unambiguous about his intentions. In the résumé he prepared for the application, Brown listed his “objective” as “Instructor Fighter Pilot.” A co-conspirator told Brown he hoped Brown would be assigned to “my base, but otherwise you’ll go where is the local equivalent as the [U.S. Air Force] Weapon School.” Upon his arrival in China, Brown wrote to a co-conspirator: “Now…. I have the chance to fly and instruct fighter pilots again!”

In December 2023, Brown traveled to China. On his first day, he spent three hours answering questions about the U.S. Air Force. On his second, he prepared and presented a brief about himself to the PLAAF. He remained in China until early February 2026 — just weeks before his arrest.

The Brown case follows similar charges filed against former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan, charged in 2017 with training Chinese military pilots in aircraft carrier takeoff and landing tactics. Duggan was arrested in Australia in October 2022 and remains pending extradition to the United States.

In June 2024, the U.S. and its Five Eyes partners published a joint bulletin warning that China’s PLA “continues to target current and former military personnel from NATO nations and other Western countries” to bolster its capabilities. Earlier this year, the then-commander of NATO Allied Air Command put it plainly: “Once you fly on our team, even after you hang up your uniform, you have a responsibility to protect our tactics, techniques and procedures.”

The Brown arrest is not the only case raising alarms about Chinese networks operating through Canadian soil.

Separately, The Bureau, citing an investigative report by the Daily Caller News Foundation, has reported about a Chinese couple from Richmond, B.C. linked to a web of shell companies that own a trailer park located roughly a mile from the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, home to the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and the launch point for the June 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The same couple appear in B.C. court filings and in video evidence from a harassment campaign outside the Vancouver home of journalist Bingchen Gao.

Missouri business and environmental filings assembled by Daily Caller investigative reporter Philip Lenczycki show the Knob Noster Trailer Park is registered to Property Solutions 3603 LP, with a state operating permit placing the property directly north of Whiteman. Companion filings in Utah and Georgia connect similarly named entities to the Chinese couple, who share a Richmond home according to court documents.