A Chinese national attending a university in Scotland has been taken into custody for snapping photos of aircraft at a U.S. military base.
Tianrui Liang, an aeronautical engineering student at the University of Glasgow, faces charges for capturing unauthorized images at Offutt Air Force Base, the site of the U.S. Strategic Command.
The 21-year-old was detained at New York’s JFK Airport on April 7, after he was seen photographing a plane renowned for its nuclear attack resilience.
A witness at the Nebraska base reported spotting an individual in a vehicle using a camera with a telescopic lens as a military aircraft was stationed on the tarmac.
FBI documents indicate that on March 31, the student photographed several aircraft at Offutt, including the Boeing E-4B, often referred to as the ‘doomsday plane.’
This aircraft serves as a mobile command center for top U.S. military and government leaders during national crises.
Liang appeared before a court in New York on April 8 and was initially released on bail, but was taken back into custody the following day when the government warned he was a ‘considerable flight risk’.
Noah Heflin, a special agent with the FBI, wrote that Liang told counterintelligence teams he knew his actions were illegal, but that the photos were ‘only for his own personal collection’.
The student is a keen plane spotter and has previously travelled around the UK to photograph military and commercial aircraft.
Mr Heflin’s affidavit alleges that Liang used a plane spotting website to learn where planes are parked, serviced and loaded at numerous airfields and airports, including the Offutt base.
Tianrui Liang was arrested after taking photographs of planes at a US airbase
According to legal documents, Liang flew out to Canada on March 26 to meet a friend who is studying at Columbia University in New York.
The pair drove across the border into America two days later, travelling from Seattle, Washington, to Billings, Montana.
When the friend departed for New York on March 29, Liang drove to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota in a bid to photograph the B1-B aircraft, a strategic bomber.
He discovered that the plane had been moved and therefore could not be photographed, then headed on to Offutt Air Force Base.
Liang was arrested several days later while travelling back to Scotland and charged with violating a US law that bans photographing, sketching or mapping ‘vital’ military bases and equipment without permission.
The student is expected to appear in court again later this month. However, the full details of his case remain undisclosed due to the FBI’s ‘concerns regarding the ongoing investigation into a named co-conspirator’.
Liang’s arrest comes amid longstanding warnings that British universities have become ‘magnets’ for espionage, according to the head of MI5 and University of Glasgow alumnus Ken McCallum.
Programs funded by the Chinese Communist party on British campuses have been accused of spying on, and censoring UK students in recent years.
Experts also warn that universities running cutting-edge research projects with international students risk exposing sensitive military and technological material to foreign agents.
In November, Nigel Inkster of the International Institute for Strategic Studies told the BBC there are ‘a lot of cases of joint research which have clear military-defence applications, where I would have thought it would occur to those engaged to ask questions about the desirability of continuing with such activities’.
Liang’s lawyer, Jeffrey Thomas, from the Federal Public Defender’s Omaha office, did not respond to enquiries.
The US Attorney’s Office in Nebraska said it was unable to comment at this time.
A University of Glasgow spokesperson said: ‘We do not comment on ongoing police matters or individual students.’
