US intelligence warns China could acquire F-35 technology
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US intelligence officers have voiced serious concerns that China could acquire sensitive technology from the advanced F-35 fighter jet through a pending $24 billion sale of dozens of the aircraft to Saudi Arabia, according to American officials cited in a New York Times report.
Intelligence analysts have highlighted the risk that Beijing might obtain the technology via espionage in the kingdom or through Saudi Arabia’s existing military and security partnership with China.
A detailed report issued months ago by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency examines Chinese military access to Saudi bases and the kingdom’s use of Chinese technology in its telecommunications infrastructure.
The assessment questions whether the United States and Saudi Arabia would be able to maintain secure sites for the F-35 technology.
That report, along with assessments from other intelligence offices, has circulated among administration agencies and congressional offices.
The sale involves 48 F-35 jets and a spare engine.
President Trump announced support for the deal in November 2025, the day before hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.
The State Department sent the proposed package to two congressional committees in June for informal approval.
A more general Defense Intelligence Agency report had earlier flagged similar risks in the fall of 2025.
Pentagon officials are especially concerned about protecting the F-35’s advanced radar and surveillance technology.
The recent intelligence report states that only Saudi and American officers and contractors should have access to sites where F-35 technology would reside.
Analysts further ask whether Saudi Arabia would agree to limit contact with Chinese military and intelligence personnel and associated entities, and whether it would remove equipment from Huawei and ZTE from telecommunications, router infrastructure, and defense installations.
Saudi Arabia has maintained decades of military cooperation with the United States and remains by far the largest buyer of American weapons and defense equipment.
At the same time, the kingdom purchases ballistic missiles from China, and the Chinese military is helping the Saudis learn to build ballistic missiles, establish production facilities, and improve missile operations.
Democratic lawmakers previously raised concerns about that cooperation in a 2022 letter to then-President Biden.
Some lawmakers and aides have pressed the Trump administration for answers regarding the intelligence findings.
Similar technology-security worries previously complicated F-35 sales discussions involving the United Arab Emirates as its ties with China deepened.
The F-35 remains one of the most advanced fighter jets in the US arsenal, and ‘Israel’ is currently the only Middle Eastern operator of the aircraft.
