“Walk into any regional airport in this country and you’ll see a Cirrus on the tarmac, sleek, American-made, flying the flag. What you won’t see is that the company building it has been owned by China’s state-controlled [Aviation Industry Corp.] AVIC since 2011, the same conglomerate that builds fighter jets and drones for the [People’s Liberation Army, a military wing of the Chinese Communist Party] PLA. And Cirrus isn’t the only one,” Harrigan told the Daily Signal.
Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., is set to introduce a bill to block China from continuing to infiltrate American airspace and aviation. Over the past 20 years, Chinese entities have been allowed to buy American general aviation companies, gaining backdoor access to aviation that feeds into military pilot training and the defense supply chain.
Harrigan’s General Aviation Protection (GAP) Act of 2026 would create a general aviation-focused restriction on China and other “countries of concern.” Congress could expand government authority to block, review, and monitor China’s involvement without restricting aviation.
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