( Kanwa News Feb 10) On February 2, the Far East Military Tribunal of Russia convicted a number of Russian and Chinese citizens of stealing and illegally selling the navigation system of Russia’s SU27 fighter plane to China. Those who were involved in this espionage case included the former major of the Intelligence Bureau of Russia’s Far East Military Region and the employees of the Far East Plane Plant that produced the SU27 for China. The above espionage group even extended its activities to the air force base and hired the low-ranking officers of the base to steal the navigation equipment and the other systems of the SU27 planes that now serve the Russian army.

The KWIC believes that several new characteristics of this espionage case merits attention. First of all, the espionage was conducted by a group of people who penetrated the Russian army and intelligence unit. China has copied the SU27 fighter planes and has produced them. It is totally possible for it to legally obtain the similar equipment. Then why did it still try to steal it from the Russian military base? There was only one explanation that China might suspect that Russia held back a trick or two and the technology transferred from Russia was different, in terms of performance, from that of the equipment now used by the Russian army. As the situation was similar to that in the 1960s, it was necessary to make a comparison.( Kanwa news ).

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