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Australia arrested a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot last week, at the request of the FBI, over his work in China, part of an apparent American and allied crackdown on Beijing's poaching of Western expertise.
A spokesperson for the Attorney-General's Department of Australia told Reuters that an individual was arrested on October 21 following a request from the United States government, without offering further details.
Reuters on Tuesday named him as Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, who was detained by the Australian Federal Police in the town of Orange, New South Wales. He appeared in court the same day, according to the report.
Police sources told the news service that Duggan is a former U.S. citizen who would likely face formal extradition proceedings. He has been denied bail and was scheduled for another court appearance in Sydney next month.
Duggan is an ex-military pilot and air combat instructor who flew for the Marines and later performed at air shows after relocating to Australia, Reuters said.
A LinkedIn profile matching his description showed Duggan served with the Marines for over a decade, between 1989 and 2002, rising to the rank of major.
Duggan said he flew the AV-8B Harrier II "jump jet" and also was a Marine Corps exchange pilot to the Spanish Navy.
On the site, Duggan listed himself as having moved to Beijing in 2014. Three years later, he became the managing director of AVIBIZ Limited, described as a "comprehensive aviation consultancy company" based in the port city of Qingdao in eastern China.
AVIBIZ Limited was registered by Australian passport holder Daniel Edmund Duggan in 2017 and dissolved in 2020, according to Hong Kong company records seen by Reuters.
The exact nature of Duggan's work in China wasn't immediately clear, but the FBI was understood to have sought his arrest because of it.
After retiring from the U.S. military, Duggan's profile said he founded an aviation company in Tasmania called Top Gun Australia, which he sold in 2014 prior to his move to Beijing.
Australia's business register showed Top Gun Australia was created in 2012 and deregistered in 2017. But the company's website was still active at the time of publication and went into more detail about Duggan's background.
The site described him as a "senior weapons and tactical instructor" who conducted hundreds of landings on seven different aircraft carriers, including during his deployment to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Southern Watch.
His company hired former Australian, British and German air force pilots to offer tours and flight training. Their work was also featured in a Tasmanian lifestyle website.
Duggan's arrest came in the same week Britain issued an intelligence warning about several dozen ex-pilots who'd been contracted to teach Chinese air force cadets.
Officials said they weren't in breach of national security laws, but vowed to tighten restrictions for former service members to prevent Beijing from paying for Western tactical know-how.
Richard Marles, Australia's defense minister, said last week that Canberra also was investigating reports of former pilots who'd been tapped for lucrative training jobs in China.
China and its rapid military advances have been identified as a national security threat to the U.S. and its allies. Analysts said the timing of the investigations by the three Western nations was likely not coincidental.
About the writer
John Feng is Newsweek's contributing editor for Asia based in Taichung, Taiwan. His focus is on East Asian politics. He ... Read more