Exclusive | US trade war could impact China’s ability to manufacture rival to Airbus, Boeing, designer says

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) relies on US suppliers for the C919, but they could be placed on China’s unreliable entities list

Chief technology officer also denies report from CrowdStrike alleging China used hacking and spying to obtain technology for the twin-engined single-aisle aircraft

Reading Time:3 minutes

The twin-engined single-aisle C919 can seat up to 168 passengers and is intended to compete against the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320neo, with the first commercial delivery scheduled in 2021 to China Eastern Airlines. Photo: EPA

Published: 6:30pm, 22 Oct 2019Updated: 9:50am, 23 Oct 2019

China’s efforts to build its first commercial passenger jet to compete with Airbus and Boeing could be adversely affected by the trade war with the United States as American suppliers of key components could be prevented from doing business in the mainland, one of the designers of the flagship C919 aircraft has warned.

Yang Zhigang, who works for the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), also strongly denied a report published last week that it used widespread hacking and spying to steal technologies to develop the C919, calling the allegations “ridiculous” and “impossible”.

“If the trade war continues and China puts our suppliers on an unreliable entity list [prohibiting them from doing business in China], it will surely affect us. For instance, we are using GE [Aviation] engines, and I don’t think China is able to produce engines that can replace GE ones,” Yang told the South China Morning Post.

One potential casualty is Honeywell International, which supplies a number of components for the C919, including the electrical system and landing gear. Chinese official press suggested in July that the company could be banned because its components are used in some of the weapons systems included in the US government’s US$2 billion arms sale to Taiwan, a deal which Beijing strongly opposed.

If the trade war continues and China puts our suppliers on an unreliable entity list [prohibiting them from doing business in China], it will surely affect us

Yang Zhigang

“A chosen supplier has often made modifications [to their product] according to our requirements, and if a chosen supplier [in the US] needs to be replaced by a European one or even a Chinese one, it will take a period of time,” Yang added.