An unprecedented "digital piracy" operation was carried out during US operations in Iran, with the Chinese military reportedly stripping away the stealth technologies of the B-2 bomber by effectively interfering with the aircraft's radio wave emissions, according to the South China Morning Post. A Chinese defense firm claimed to have recovered radio signals from four American B-2 stealth bombers returning from strikes over Iran on March 1st. Specifically, Jingan Technology, a Hangzhou-based intelligence firm linked to the Chinese military, maintains that its AI-enhanced "Jingqi" monitoring system captured emissions from the aircraft, identified their call signs as Petro 41 through 44, and reconstructed the full mission profile through signal analysis combined with satellite imagery and aviation data.
Silence from the United States
The US has neither confirmed nor denied the claim, and there is no independent verification. The B-2 Spirit remains the most advanced stealth platform ever built, with a radar cross-section smaller than a marble. The aircraft completed their mission. The Americans limited themselves to the claim that the "strikes hit their targets." They added that "Iran's missile infrastructure was degraded by approximately 90% to 95%," overlooking that Iran continues to sweep Tel Aviv and the Middle East with missile barrages. Why then does this claim matter? Because it is not about radar, but about radio waves.
China exposed B-2 stealth technology through radio interference
The B-2 was designed to be invisible to radar, not to every electromagnetic emission it produces. During mission phases that require communication, the aircraft emits radio signals. These signals are by design "Low Probability of Intercept," but not zero. What Jingan claims is not that it defeated the stealth itself, but that it detected the communications signature of aircraft that doctrine considers undetectable. This distinction is of immense importance.
Beijing changes the rules of (stealth) warfare
Eliminating stealth on radar would signal the end of an era. The detection of radio emissions is a known vulnerability that US doctrine mitigates through emission control (EMCON) and radio silence protocols. The B-2 succeeded. The mission succeeded, theoretically. 
However, if the claim is even partially valid, it signals that Chinese AI-powered signals intelligence (SIGINT) has reached a capability threshold where operational patterns can be reconstructed from fragmentary emission data.
Strategic deadlock for the US in Iran
The timing of the Chinese report is by no means accidental. Beijing made this claim public while the US is simultaneously trying to form a naval coalition for Hormuz, which Germany, Japan, and Australia refused to join. 
At the same time, the 31 autonomous commands of the Revolutionary Guard continue mining the straits and launching drones, while the American military is scattered across Baghdad, the Gulf, and the Arabian Sea protecting embassies, airbases, and carrier strike groups.
A message of strategic composure to Trump from Beijing
China is not offering to help open Hormuz. Instead, it banned phosphate exports until August and cut off NPK mixture shipments. 
China buys Iranian oil via its own ships that pass selectively, while Western shipping is immobilized. And now, a firm linked to the PLA is trumpeting to the world that it can track America's most sensitive aerial assets during the very operations designed to resolve the crisis.
"We can decrypt the most advanced Western weapons"
Consequently, this is not a simple military revelation, but a development that changes the overall geostrategic data across entire theaters of operation. The message to every US ally asked to send warships? The power asking you to enter a war zone may not even possess the technological dominance it claims. The message to Iran? Your opponent's most advanced weapons leave traces that can be read. The message to the global market? The multi-layered competition between the US and China is now evolving into a real battle within the Hormuz crisis, adding a layer of strategic uncertainty that no pseudo-economic model can calculate.
China stripped the myth of American superiority with a simple AI tool
The B-2 executed its mission and returned to base. The strikes, theoretically always, yielded results. American air superiority over Iran is not currently in question. However, the fact that a Chinese AI system claims awareness of these missions at the signal level, at the moment Washington is pleading with allies for frigates, says something about the broader architecture of power in 2026 that commodity prices and insurance premiums cannot capture. Real war in real conditions has more, more contradictory, and more multi-layered dimensions than any models available to the markets.
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