U.S. officials are investigating after a shipment of F-35 stealth fighter parts was diverted, potentially to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.
Politico first reported on Sept. 18 that a shipment of F-35 Lightning II fighter jet components was being shipped from Australia to the United States for repairs when the parts were somehow misplaced.
Citing three anonymous sources familiar with the matter, Politico reported the F-35 parts were instead diverted to Hong Kong.
If the F-35 parts were indeed diverted to a Chinese territory, it raises the risk that Chinese authorities could have gleaned sensitive details about the fighter jet.
“The F-35 Joint Program Office and Office of the Secretary of War are aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components,” the F-35 Program Office told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement on Friday.
“We are actively working with U.S. authorities and industry partners to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence.”
The F-35 Program Office did not provide any additional details about misplaced parts or where investigators believe they may have been sent.
The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to further requests for comment on the matter.
The United States led the development of the F-35 stealth fighter, with support from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Several other allies and partners of the United States have also adopted the F-35.
Widespread adoption of the F-35 has fostered a global market for spare parts, but also raised the risk of those parts being misplaced.
A 2023 report by the Government Accountability Office concluded that more than a million parts had gone missing from the F-35’s global spares pool between May 2018 and October 2022.
The U.S. government has also previously contended with Chinese efforts to glean valuable insights about the F-35.
In 2016, a Chinese national named Su Bin pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal information about the F-35 and other western military aircraft, in coordination with Chinese military officers.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Sept. 23.
“We’re going to have some pretty important meetings,” Trump told reporters on Sept. 18.
Trump went on to discuss a dynamic of mutual espionage between the United States and China.
“Somebody said, ‘Oh, they spy on us,’ and I said, ‘Maybe they do. We spy on them too.’ You know, I don’t want to give any certified or classified information, but we spy on them too,” Trump said.
