Yesterday I was doing an errand in the car and caught the tail end of a discussion on a rebroadcast Diane Rehm show about Chinese spying in the United States. A flight instructor called in to mention something that greatly concerned him. Prospective pilots for Chinese airlines often came to the US for flight training, as do pilots from many other parts of the world. The US may be lagging in many areas, but we're still far and away #1 in the flight-school category.
What bothered the instructor is that Chinese students would bring cameras along on flights and take pictures from the cockpit. Including when they were near military bases! (Or doing practice approaches at military airfields, which in some case is possible as part of flight training.) He didn't like that at all, and he made them erase the photos before they could leave the plane. As I was getting out of the car, the guest was starting to congratulate the flight instructor on these prudent steps.
It is a relief to know that he has been so careful. Imagine the threat to national security if there were some way for non-Americans to know what U.S. military facilities looked like from above.
If, for instance, they could get an idea of the looks and layout of the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in southern California, one-time home of the Top Gun school: