China's Answer To Boeing And Airbus Isn't A Homegrown Jet

China is claiming a historic win this week after its answer to Boeing and Airbus, the C919, took to the skies for its first commercial flight.

Photo Insert: China has made no secret of its ambition for COMAC to eventually compete against Airbus and Boeing, which currently command virtually the entire market.

Beijing calls the aircraft its first large homegrown passenger jet produced under Beijing’s broader “Made in China” strategy, a campaign to reduce national reliance on foreign manufacturers, Michelle Toh reported for CNN on June 3, 2023.

But instead of boosting China’s global stature in technology innovation, experts say COMAC’s C919 is a symbol of its continued reliance on the West.

That’s because a large chunk of the plane’s parts come from foreign suppliers, predominantly in North America and Europe.

Chinese state media has said about 40% of the model’s components are imported, though experts say the real proportion is much higher. China has made no secret of its ambition for COMAC to eventually compete against Airbus and Boeing, which currently command virtually the entire market.

Experts said this was unlikely to happen anytime soon.

While it is normal for manufacturers to source equipment for their planes from around the world, “the C919 is unique in that almost nothing that keeps it in the air is from China,” said Scott Kennedy, who spent two years leading a team that researched China’s decades-long efforts to develop its own commercial aircraft. Their conclusion?

“The C919 is primarily a non-Chinese airplane with Chinese paint on it,” said Scott, trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

Its technology is “already available in the Airbus and in the Boeing planes,” he said. It could also take many years for its planes to be certified by US and European aviation regulators.

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