An investigative account outlines how thousands of Chinese nationals receive U.S. flight training each year, including future military aviators, under programs operating with minimal oversight.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Thousands of Chinese pilots are receiving flight training every year at American aviation schools in California and Arizona, a practice that investigative journalist Peter Schweizer describes as a systemic vulnerability in U.S. immigration and aviation oversight. In his book, The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon, Schweizer details how the Chinese Communist Party has routed future pilots—many ultimately bound for state and military service—into the United States under the guise of civilian flight instruction.
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Schweizer writes that China faces a structural shortage of trained pilots. “The People’s Republic of China has a pilot problem,” he explains in The Invisible Coup, noting that Beijing needs approximately five thousand new pilot cadets annually to meet both civilian airline and military demand. Because China’s military tightly controls domestic airspace, Schweizer writes that the country can produce only about 1,200 pilots per year internally. To close that gap, he reports, Chinese authorities built an external training system that sends roughly three thousand pilots annually to the United States.
According to Schweizer, at least sixteen U.S. flight schools operating out of taxpayer-funded airports participate in this system. He writes that Chinese cadets are often trained without fully disclosing foreign military affiliations, entering the country as civilian students to obtain American flight credentials before returning to China. The practice, Schweizer notes, also applies to helicopter pilots, who receive U.S. training after arriving on student visas with what he describes as minimal scrutiny, a process highlighted in the China’s Top Gun Flight School video.
“How this happened is a testament to Chinese ingenuity in manipulating our immigration system for subversive purposes and using our openness and generosity against us,” Schweizer writes. “It is also a tribute to American innocence, or at worst, ignorance.”
One of the most prominent examples cited in the book is Sierra Academy of Aeronautics in Atwater, California, where Schweizer reports that the majority of students are Chinese nationals sent through channels linked to China’s Civil Aviation Administration. The academy’s owner, John Yoon, is described as operating several affiliated companies with extensive Chinese ties. Schweizer writes that Sierra Academy pursued plans to develop a cargo facility at Castle Airport to move goods between California and China, with the project seeking financing through EB-5 investment funds from Chinese nationals.
In a 2013 interview with the Merced Sun-Star, Sierra Academy vice president and chief flight instructor Brian Johnson described the school’s international relationships. “Because Sierra Academy has been working with the Chinese government, institutions, airlines—we have all the right contacts to put this program in place,” Johnson said. Schweizer argues that the model effectively pairs aviation training with U.S. residency opportunities, creating what he characterizes as a dual benefit for Beijing.
Documents cited in The Invisible Coup further indicate that Sierra Academy has collaborated with Chinese counterparts involved in aeronautical manufacturing, including individuals embedded in military contracting networks and talent pipelines aligned with the CCP. Schweizer concludes that the United States is sustaining a steady flow of trained Chinese pilots, some of whom could eventually confront American forces in future conflicts.
Local residents have raised concerns about the implications. Merced-area resident Fred Warchel questioned the practice, asking, “Why train potential enemies to fly?” He added that hundreds of Chinese students have received both initial and advanced instruction at Sierra Academy, noting that if Chinese and American pilots were ever to engage in combat, “both may be able to say: We received our training in America at the former Castle Air Force Base.”
Schweizer documents a similar arrangement near Phoenix, Arizona, involving AeroGuard. In The Invisible Coup, he recounts a 2022 agreement under which the company committed to train pilots for the Chinese government-controlled Cathay Pacific airline, with plans to train hundreds of cadet pilots at its Phoenix campus. The agreement was approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration.
As quoted in the book, AeroGuard credited Arizona Congressman Greg Stanton for helping secure and expedite the approvals. In a company statement, AeroGuard said Stanton assisted with coordination involving the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adding that his support was “invaluable in making sure the approvals were obtained in a timely fashion.”
Schweizer’s book lays out additional details of the scope and mechanics of American-based flight training for Chinese pilots, portraying the system as a largely unexamined transfer of U.S. aviation expertise to China’s state-controlled and military aviation apparatus.
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