Not the cut-throat war anymore

She repeatedly stressed that the U.S. doesn’t want a decoupling from China.

HAN WOO-DUKThe author is a senior reporter of the China Lab. More than 290 airplanes are stocked in the warehouse of American aerospace company Boeing. They are new products that are waiting to be delivered to the customers. One hundred forty of them, nearly half, are ordered from China. But after a series of Boeing 747 Max crashes, China suspended receiving deliveries of them completely. As the U.S.-China trade dispute arises just in time, the inventory situation is getting worse.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo chose the Boeing hangar in Shanghai as the site of the wrap-up press conference for her visit to China. It represents her determination to resolve the Boeing inventory issue. However, the issue was not mentioned. In other words, the two countries need more time.

But Boeing is impatient. As of the end of last year, China has ordered 116 aircraft from Boeing. Airbus, on the other hand, has secured 565 aircraft. Airbus, co-owned by the German-French-Spanish European Aeronautic Defense and Space and Britain’s BAE Systems, received 140 more orders when French President Emmanuel Macron visited China in April. Boeing may have to yield the gigantic market expected to grow to 8,485 aircraft by 2041 to the competitor. But China also has its weaknesses. China’s dream is to reorganize the global aircraft market into an “ABC structure,” in which Airbus, Boeing and Comac, a Chinese aircraft manufacturer, share the market. For this, China is making efforts to produce Comac’s civilian aircraft, C919. It has already finished the test flight and is ready to operate.

But C919 cannot fly on its own, as it relies on the United States for key parts such as engines. Comac imports C919 engines from French manufacturer Safran, who uses key technologies of American company GE. Moreover, flight control systems and flight record devices also rely on U.S. technologies. Therefore, China cannot ignore Boeing’s demands completely. Faced with an economic crisis, China needs the U.S. market to break through the declining exports. So, China receiving Boeing delivery will likely be a matter of time.

At the news conference at the hangar, Raimondo said the discord between America and China is not good for the U.S., China or the world. She repeatedly stressed that the U.S. doesn’t want a decoupling from China. It suggests that the new Cold War between the two will progress differently from the cut-throat U.S.-Soviet Cold War. The U.S.-China dynamics of the aircraft industry show that.