Big Take Asia The Sixth Bureau Episode 3: Suck, Squeeze, Burn, Blow
Feb 20, 2026
Bradley Hall, an FBI Special Agent who worked the investigation and served as an expert witness, walks through surveillance, controlled communications and suspect interactions. The conversation covers the Paris Air Show as an intelligence target. It also outlines how LinkedIn recruitment, university ties and stolen GE engine files led to an FBI sting and a surprising legal turnaround.
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Episode notes
Why Jet Engines Are Exceptionally Hard To Build
- Building world-class jet engines depends on mastering material science, precision and safety, not just design.
- Only a handful of companies globally, like GE and Rolls-Royce, can make competitive commercial engines today.
Simple Principle, Immense Complexity
- Jet propulsion simplifies to “suck, squeeze, burn, blow,” but achieving it reliably is a huge engineering feat.
- Performance, weight, cost and safety make commercial engines extraordinarily difficult to perfect.
Spycraft At The Paris Air Show
- Xu Yanjun attended the Paris Air Show in 2017 with an MSS team using a front company and a surveillance-detection route.
- They partied across Europe to appear ordinary while scouting technology and contacts at Le Bourget.