The United States should keep China integrated into its aviation industry supply chains to maintain control over the country’s ability to develop, an expert told a US government advisory panel on Thursday.
The recommendation was among dozens made over several hours of testimony in a US-China Economic and Security Review Commission [USCC] hearing called to assess Beijing’s industrial ambitions under the “Made in China 2025” plan, an initiative that seeks to establish Chinese dominance in a range of industries.
US officials have argued for years that MIC-2025 relies on unfair trade practices to challenge American technological leadership, and have used it as justification for import tariffs and other restrictions on trade and investment with China.
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The USCC, which reports to Congress, uses expert testimony to inform policies aimed at countering China’s ability to threaten US interests.
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst and managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, said the US should resist a protectionist stance and instead maintain international collaboration in aviation manufacturing.
Pointing out challenges that China has had in developing jet engines for commercial aircraft, he warned that shutting China out of supply chains could backfire by accelerating its push for self-sufficiency.
China’s much-vaunted C919 aircraft, produced by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China [Comac], relies on US firm GE Aerospace as a key stakeholder of the passenger jet’s engines. GE and Pratt & Whitney, another US company, as well as Britain’s Rolls-Royce, dominate the global market for commercial jet engines.
“Until they get that jet engine industry up and running, and we don’t really know when that is, the US can govern what China does moving forward,” he said. “But if we cut them off completely, they’ll have no choice but to build their own, and that could ultimately reduce our influence.”
Aboulafia said China has made significant progress in developing a commercial aircraft industry but still faces major hurdles. He noted that despite large state investments, its jets remain technologically behind Western models, in terms of weight and fuel efficiency, and depend on imported components.
Even minor shortcomings in civil aircraft performance, he said, can make a product commercially unviable, unlike the military equipment market, where economic efficiency is not always the top priority.
“If an aircraft is even 5 per cent less efficient, a rival can out-price and out-profit it,” the expert said. Airlines operate on thin margins, Aboulafia added, and need planes that maximise efficiency and reliability, making it difficult for China to compete unless it can match Western standards.
Commission members asked why China struggles to build competitive aircraft despite its vast resources. Aboulafia attributed it to the high barriers to entry in aerospace and China’s reliance on state-owned enterprises that mandate technology transfers without strong intellectual property protections.
This explains why Comac’s C909 never became internationally competitive and the C919 is “just enough behind the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max in terms of performance capabilities”, he said.
The C909 is a 90-seat regional released in 2016 as part of Chengdu Airlines’ fleet, which struggled to gain a share of markets outside China.
Other experts at the hearing examined China’s advances in biotechnology and robotics, with differing views on whether detachment from the country in these fields would work in America’s favour.
With stark warnings about how Beijing’s “all-of-society” approach to the development of biotechnology ecosystems was paving the way for the country to dominate the industry, Drew Endy, a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, also asserted a need for the US to maintain collaboration with China.
He pointed to existing multilateral research efforts on smallpox, which include scientists from China, Russia, and the US, as proof that nations can work together on complex and sensitive issues. Strengthening such frameworks with adequate “guardrails”, he suggested, would reduce distrust and help answer critical questions in biotechnology and other fields.
Endy also warned that the US is losing valuable time in the race for technological leadership. He described how, more than a decade ago, China swiftly adopted a synthetic biology strategy developed in collaboration with US and UK researchers, while Washington failed to act.
He noted that China has already surpassed the US in key areas, from synthetic biology research output to biomanufacturing capacity. Without urgent investment in foundational research and innovation, he cautioned, the US risks ceding long-term leadership in biotechnology to China.
“We have less than 1000 days to make a difference. Even the next 100 days are important, and tomorrow is important,” Endy said, urging policymakers to move beyond discussions and take decisive action.
More from South China Morning Post:
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