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Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: Fallout from a fatal plane crash in Beijing ripples through the security state, a Chinese billionaire is sentenced to 30 years in U.S. prison, and Chinese artificial intelligence models close the U.S. lead on cybersecurity.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: Fallout from a fatal plane crash in Beijing ripples through the security state, a Chinese billionaire is sentenced to 30 years in U.S. prison, and Chinese artificial intelligence models close the U.S. lead on cybersecurity.

Beijing Plane Crash Fallout

Last Friday, a small plane struck the CITIC Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Beijing and the headquarters of the state-owned CITIC Group, killing the pilot and injuring 13 others.

The incident immediately raised questions about how the plane was flying through one of the world’s most controlled airspaces in the first place. China’s airspace is heavily restricted, with more than 70 percent of it under military control.

The skies over Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership compound, are especially sensitive. During construction of the CITIC Tower, officials reportedly worried that visitors to its observation deck—only a few miles from Zhongnanhai—might be able to observe activities inside the complex.

Although the Chinese government acknowledged the crash and confirmed the pilot’s death, there has been almost no coverage of it in official media, and censors are working to scrub discussion of the incident from social media.

The worst-case explanation for Beijing is that this was a deliberate attack. Acts of suicidal violence........

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