Report, photo copyright by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
There are reports that the Chinese Communist regime has ordered Chinese airlines to stop accepting aircraft produced by Boeing and American aircraft parts in retaliation for U.S. President Trump’s tariff war. Trump on 15 April 2025 condemned the CCP for violating its agreement with Boeing. Experts said that the CCP’s move was just a symbolic retaliation to save face, and it would actually cause greater harm to itself. The "domestic" large aircraft C919 that the CCP is counting on is currently facing many difficulties in replacing.
The CCP ordered airlines to stop accepting Boeing aircraft. Who will suffer the greater loss?
Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that with no sign of easing in the U.S.-China tariff war, the CCP authorities have asked domestic airlines to suspend acceptance of pending Boeing aircraft and to stop purchasing any aircraft-related parts and equipment from U.S. companies.
The order came after Beijing announced on 11 April 2025 that it would impose retaliatory tariffs of 125% on US goods. Such a tax rate would more than double the cost of U.S.-made aircraft and parts. At the same time, airlines still have hundreds of Boeing aircraft in their fleets that need maintenance, repair and replacement.
The above report pointed out that according to statistics from professional institutions, Boeing currently has about 10 737 MAX aircraft ready to be delivered to Chinese operators, some of which have already arrived in China and are currently parked at a maintenance centre in Zhoushan, Zhejiang. Since the delivery and payment of these aircraft had been completed before the United States announced the "reciprocal tariff", it may be handled on a case-by-case basis and the delivery of the aircraft may be allowed. However, Boeing still has a lot of finished new aircraft in stock that were originally planned to be supplied to Chinese airlines.
Bernstein Research estimates that of the many 737 MAXs in Boeing's inventory, 27 are earmarked for shipment to China this year, along with some Boeing 787s and 777Fs, the cancellations will result in a $1.2 billion cash drain.
Bloomberg reported that with the high tariffs imposed by the United States and China on each other, Chinese airlines will also see a significant increase in the cost of leasing Boeing aircraft. Therefore, relevant Chinese authorities are studying response plans, including providing assistance to airlines that lease Boeing aircraft.
Ye Yaoyuan, professor of international studies at the University of St. Thomas in the United States, told the Epoch Times that the CCP’s move has greater symbolic significance. There are only two largest aircraft manufacturers in the world now, one is Boeing and the other is France’s Airbus, and Boeing’s prices are more expensive than Airbus. The CCP now deliberately prohibits Chinese airlines from buying Boeing, mainly because the totalitarian country wants to save face and take superficial revenge, but in fact China needs the United States more, and in the end it is China that loses.
Su Ziyun, director of the Institute of Strategy and Resources at the Taiwan Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told the Epoch Times that although the United States may temporarily lose these transactions with China, there are still many airlines in China that use Boeing products, and subsequent components will be unsustainable.
Bloomberg said Boeing's difficulties in China have not affected the company to the extent they should have, and the Indian market has already received some aircraft originally intended for Chinese airlines.
Su Ziyun said that in the past, when the CCP purchased passenger planes, it would balance the purchase of European and American products to maintain relations. Now that it has severed relations with the United States, all orders will be transferred to Europe. However, what is disadvantageous to the CCP is that the engines on its domestically produced C919 come from the United States. Then it may transfer all the electronic equipment, flight systems and engine systems inside the C919 to European Airbus, bearing short-term losses, while winning over the EU to attack the United States.
However, he believes that in the tariff war, the EU will not completely cut off ties with the United States. After all, security relations are still very important, and the EU will also focus on the North American market.
Regarding China’s latest blow to Boeing, President Trump said on Truth Social on Tuesday, “Interestingly, they (China) just reneged on a major deal with Boeing and said they would ‘not take’ the airplanes that they had fully committed to (buy).”
This is a unilateral breach of contract by the Chinese Communist Party. Ye Yaoyuan said, "You have already agreed to buy Boeing planes. Now the (Chinese Communist Party) government says you can't buy them. Boeing can of course file an administrative lawsuit and ask you to pay the fines according to the contract. If these fines are eventually recovered, it will be a loss for these companies, and there is no way to refuse. Because if they want to do cross-border business, if the company contract with the United States is not handled well, they may not be able to do business in other countries."
Ye Yaoyuan said that if Chinese airlines want to continue doing business in the future, they can only increase their costs, adding another shadow to international trade. Losing the Chinese market is certainly a problem for Boeing but it will slowly make up for it in other areas. If China continues to exclude the United States, not just in the aviation industry but in all industries, it will do China more harm than good.
The CCP is counting on the domestically produced C919 large aircraft but it faces many difficulties
The Chinese Communist Party has long been counting on the domestically produced COMAC C919 to supplement its demand for large aircraft.
C919 is a single-aisle, 150-seat narrow-body mainline civil aircraft manufactured by COMAC. It comes standard with 168 seats and can accommodate up to 190 seats. The C919 project was launched in 2008, and the first prototype was scheduled to make its maiden flight in 2014. However, it was not until November 2015 that the first C919 aircraft rolled off the assembly line. The delivery date, originally scheduled for 2016, was postponed due to various development issues. The first flight was successfully completed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 2 pm on 5 May 2017. The aircraft is awarded the airworthiness certificate and delivered in 2022. It begins passenger operations on 28 May 2023.
Image : On 8 December 2022, the C919 domestically-produced passenger aircraft produced by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) is officially handed over to China Eastern Airlines in Shanghai. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Domestic products have always been a sign of nationalism advocated by the Chinese Communist Party but the C919 has been plagued by problems since its debut. Among them, on 29 June 2023, a China Eastern C919 passenger plane failed to return normally after flying from Shanghai to Chengdu, and was replaced by an Airbus A320. Immediately afterwards, on 30 June, the C919 aircraft continued to be grounded and the same flight was replaced by Airbus A20N. On 1 July 2023, the C919 flew again.
During the Chinese New Year homecoming rush this year, the C919 operated multiple routes across the country. Despite the authorities' strict control, there are still some voices complaining about the C919 on mainland social media.
The C919 is claimed to be the first independently developed jet trunk aircraft in the Chinese civil aviation market but in fact it is assembled from various international parts. The C919 relies heavily on American parts, including the heart of the aircraft - the engine. The C919's engines are products of CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric of the United States and Safran Group of France. Although the aircraft and some parts are produced by Chinese assembly lines, the company still relies on Western companies' intellectual property and after-sales services.
China's commercial passenger aircraft ARJ21 and C919 began demonstration flights in Southeast Asia at the end of February 2024, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries, seeking to subsequently expand into the Southeast Asian market.
Xi Jinping visits Vietnam on 14 April 2025. On 13 April 2025, on the eve of Xi's visit to Vietnam, the Vietnamese government issued a decree stipulating that aircraft imported into Vietnam must include those certified or approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. On the same day, Vietnam's low-cost airline Vietiet Air and COMAC signed a Memorandum Of Understanding in Hanoi.
Vietjet Air has leased two COMAC C909s (i.e. ARJ21s), which will be operated by Chengdu Airlines crew to fly the domestic route sectors Hanoi=Con Dao and Ho Chi Minh City=Con Dao.
However, both Vietnam Airlines and Vietiet Air are seeking to purchase more Boeing aircraft to reduce their trade deficit with the United States and ease the pressure of high reciprocal tariffs imposed by Trump.
COMAC's passenger aircraft have not yet been approved by U.S. or European Union aviation regulators and will face difficulties operating in Vietnam under current regulations. According to the China-EU agreement signed in 2019, the C919 cannot fly in Europe without the consent of the European Union.
At the same time, China faces other obstacles in developing its own domestically produced passenger aircraft, the C919.
On 6 January 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense published an updated list of "Chinese Military-related Enterprises" (the "Section 1260H List" officially named under US law) in the Federal Register, adding 134 new Chinese companies, including COMAC. Entities included in the list may face physical bans or product and service bans.
The mainland self-media "China Civil Aviation" subsequently published an article saying that China Commercial Aircraft Corporation was included in the list, which is worrying that it may encounter obstacles or even sanctions when importing American products and technologies in the future, which may cause the C919 aircraft to face the dilemma of suspension of production.
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