The Trump administration is facing a "devastating" threat from China after a package containing F-35 fighter jet parts was diverted to Hong Kong.
On Thursday, former Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh explained during an appearance on CNN that the Trump administration should be concerned about China's ability to reproduce and reverse-engineer the F-35 after the faux pas.
"This is incredibly damaging and embarrassing for the United States," Singh said. "This is our most sophisticated aircraft platform that our military uses, and the proprietary information and some of the parts that were rerouted can be devastating, not only to reverse-engineer, but these are the fighters that can evade detection."
She said, "An investigation would certainly need to play out" to understand just how devastating the mistake can be and what kind of threat is in place. However, she stressed that the F-35 is "very sophisticated," especially when it comes to avoiding detection.
"You'll remember when [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin came to Alaska, the red slating that you saw on the fighter jets, that was to protect components of the F-35 from photographs," Singh explained. "So the fact that this has now fallen into the wrong hands, I would hope that the president is pushing President Xi on how to get these back."
Singh was referring to the fact that Chinese leader Xi Jinping is in Washington, D.C., and visiting President Donald Trump in the White House. She said it was an opportunity to bring the matter up, "but it's almost a little too late at this point because I would assume Chinese intelligence has at least taken photographs of this."
CNN anchor Jake Tapper was flabbergasted to learn that the F-35 parts arrived in Hong Kong via UPS, the popular package courier, despite their importance to national security.
"UPS?" Tapper asked. "It's not a Christmas sweater."