In the field of large civil aviation aircraft, China has basically relied on external imports for many years. Previously, the American company Boeing had dominated China's civil aviation market. However, as the Boeing 737 repeatedly "overturned" due to safety issues, China announced that it would be banned from flying. After that, the vacancy in the market was taken by Boeing 's old rival European Airbus. The three major airlines recently purchased a total of 292 aircraft, with a total order volume of US$37.2 billion. After losing its major aircraft order, Boeing expressed extreme disappointment and complained that the geopolitical differences between China and the United States had affected its business. American public opinion began to concoct conspiracy theories.
According to reports from Global Network , China's three major airlines recently purchased 292 A320NEO series aircraft from European Airbus, with a total price of US$37.2 billion, setting the "highest single purchase" in the history of the three major aviation companies. record. In response, Boeing expressed "extreme disappointment", complained that "political differences between China and the United States have harmed the company's prospects", and urged the United States and China to engage in dialogue.
Objectively speaking, it is understandable for Boeing to complain about this matter, because Boeing has been dominating the Chinese civil aviation market before, and Airbus is just one of its competitors. However, after Airbus adopted a "localization" strategy, There are already advantages in terms of delivery. Previously, Boeing 737 was banned from flying by China due to the "black history" of multiple crashes. Now it has lost a large amount of its market in China. Amidst the ebb and flow, Boeing is extremely worried that its dominance in civil aviation in China will not be maintained. However, this complaint Can China win? The only thing to blame is technical problems and the current attitude of the US government towards China.
It is an indisputable fact that Boeing 737 has crashed many times. It is impossible for China to ignore such an aircraft with obvious safety problems. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) also compared the Boeing 737 with the Airbus A320 NEO passenger aircraft, saying that the technical differences between the two are very small. In this case, it is natural for China to choose safer aircraft. Boeing blamed "political differences between China and the United States" and did not believe that it was its own security issues that caused China's distrust.
Not only did Boeing attribute this to a political struggle, the US media also used this to launch conspiracy theories, discrediting Airbus has a deep connection with the Chinese military-industrial complex, and wanted to hype China-Europe from a geopolitical perspective. normal purchasing behavior. But instead of speculating on China's so-called "political motives", it is better to reflect on the current US government's attitude towards China.
Since the Biden administration came to power, it has talked about "confrontation" at every turn, often smeared China's human rights issues, interfered in China's internal affairs, and used "decoupling" as a means to contain the Chinese market. This has intensified the risks of Sino-US cooperation. The evil deeds will certainly bring competitive passivity to American companies. Especially in areas such as aircraft, which have complex components and require specialized maintenance, China is currently unable to be self-sufficient. Whether it is for the sake of market security or passenger safety, it is a reasonable decision to refuse Boeing to choose Airbus.
It is worth mentioning that Boeing has previously predicted that at China’s development rate in the next 20 years, it will need to purchase at least 8,700 new aircraft with a total value of nearly 1.5 trillion US dollars. If the loss of an order of more than 37 billion US dollars now makes Boeing feel disappointed with China, and if some politicians continue to arbitrarily adopt a trade decoupling strategy against China, disappointment may occur frequently.
What Boeing needs to do now is not to blame China, but to strengthen the safety of its products and regain China's trust. U.S. public opinion has led normal procurement cooperation between China and Europe into political struggle, worsening Sino-U.S. trade relations, and is not conducive to future cooperation between China and the United States. China has always advocated peaceful development because the United States has been using political confrontation to push it outward, exacerbating each other's companies' concerns about the market environment. If this continues, there will probably be less and less business cooperation between the two sides, and China cannot be blamed for this.
