Posted on 05/16/2024 5:51:10 PM PDT by george76
Switzerland agreed to buy F-35 jet fighters to park on a remote runway. Then the U.S. zeroed in on the Wangs, who owned the rustic hotel next door.
UNTERBACH, — The Hotel Rössli, a century-old lodge in this Alpine valley village, enjoys a spectacular view .
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But it is the view from the back that caught the attention of American intelligence agencies. About 100 yards from the rear of the rustic, wood-paneled inn .. cuts the runway where the Swiss military had agreed to base several F-35s, the world’s most advanced jet fighter. The airstrip, only partly fenced, is so accessible to passersby that farmers sometimes lead cows across it, bells clanging from their necks.
Until recently, the hotel’s most pressing complaint came from elderly neighbors disappointed that its Chinese owners, the Wang family, had closed its restaurant after buying it in 2018. Though Wang Jin’s wife, Lin Jing, spoke only Mandarin, and communicated using hand gestures, he smoothed things over by introducing himself in decent German to residents who were flattered—“very Swiss,” one said.
On a crisp summer morning last year, Swiss federal police raided the Rössli, taking the Wangs and their 27-year-old son Dawei in for questioning. Somebody left a note on the door reading: “The hotel is closed.”
For months, U.S. and British national security officials had been claiming that its quaint 1903 facade offered Beijing’s intelligence services an ideal watchpost on the front edge of an escalating spy war between America and China. Xi Jinping’s intelligence agencies, U.S. officials warned, were going to enormous lengths to acquire information about the supersonic jet, built to penetrate enemy airspace undetected.
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The National Security Agency documents Edward Snowden leaked in 2015 showed Chinese hackers had stolen terabytes of data on the jet.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
They need to know everything about the F35 to know what NOT to do.
[They need to know everything about the F35 to know what NOT to do.]
Lesson #1 - do not design a fighter-bomber to be a .........
......Swiss Army Knife (oh, pun definitely intended)
jet, built to penetrate enemy airspace undetected.
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That’s a laugh. Only stealthy head on. Else the bomb truck is highly visible.
The frequent and extended stays in China suggest they don’t even enjoy being in Switzerland.
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Who would? From their perspective, they are surrounded by foreigners.
operations tempos, maintenance routines, materials - the Chinese still have not been able to make crystalline turbine blades uses in jet engines - further note, it wasn’t until last year they were able to make the ball of a ball point pen.
The Chinese spend billions per year to convince the rest of the world that their military is superior to every one else, that they have the best form of government, etc.
The only thing of note, they have over the US, is they have 288 times the shipyard capacity, and can crank out warships in less than a year.
[Who would? From their perspective, they are surrounded by foreigners.]
They’re running into the same problem the Russians did once the government stopped being the only game in town, employment-wise. Private companies, while subject to random seizure by grabby apparatchiks, tend to hoover up the cream of the crop. Better pay, better benefits and a lot easier to job hop to other private firms if you hate your boss/job. The dregs go into government, which is why you get spectacular flame-outs like this particular operation.
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