The Chinese Aviation Industry: Techno-Hybrid Patterns of Development in the C919 Program

Abstract

The C919 program is representative of China's broader approach to advancing its aviation industry: dependence on foreign partnerships alongside investment in indigenous development. We find that this approach most closely fits the techno-hybrid model of technological development. This combination of techno-globalism and techno-nationalism is also found in the Aviation Industry Corporation of China's (AVIC) concept of indigenous innovation, macro strategy and structure, the controversy surrounding the recently revealed J-20 stealth fighter, and Chinese views of the potential for civil–military integration to aid in the development of a military airlifter. Truly indigenous development remains aspirational at this time, and the technological barriers that have caused China to depend upon international suppliers for the C919 project are also expected to inhibit domestic innovation and limit its impact on global aviation markets.

Key Words:

• China
• Aviation
• Civil–Military Integration

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Richard Aboulafia, Dennis Blasko, Tai Ming Cheung, Thomas Dowling, Kevin Lanzit, John Marino, James Mulvenon, Mike Sacks, and Robert Skebo. We also thank Ken Allen, Ed Francis, Kevin Pollpeter, and Susan Puska for reviewing our draft.

Notes

¹Tai Ming Cheung, ‘The Chinese Defense Economy's Long March from Imitation to Innovation’, The Journal of Strategic Studies, 34/3 (June 2011), 326–7.

²Tai Ming Cheung, ‘Economics, Security, and Technology in Northeast Asia: Maneuvering Between Nationalist and Globalist Forces’, unpublished MS, March 2010, 3; Atushi Yamada, ‘Neo-Techno-Nationalism: How and Why It Grows’, Nationalism and Citizenship Issue 6 (2000), 1–13; Sylvia Ostry and Richard R. Nelson, Techno-Nationalism and Techno-Globalism: Conflict and Cooperation (Washington DC: Brookings 1995).

³Cheung, ‘Economics, Security, and Technology in Northeast Asia’, 3.

⁴‘Merg[ing] into the global aviation industrial chain’ is the first part of the ‘Two Merges’ development strategy discussed in more detail later in the paper. See ‘Deepen Reform, Renew the Spirit, Welcome New Challenges ()’, China Aviation News (), 2 Jan. 2010; Liu Shengjun, ‘New Posture, New Reform, New Starting Point: AVIC Gets Listed on the Stock Market ()’, China Aviation News (), 27 April 2009.

⁵Gao Lu, ‘Chinese Jetliner Development is on Track (),’ Xinhua (), 9 June 2009.

⁶‘All Facets of Work of Analyzing Domestically Produced Big Plane Engine Suppliers Begin (),’ AVBuyer.com.cn, 7 April 2010, <http://news.avbuyer.com.cn/Article/2010-04-07/247998_1.shtml>.

⁷‘First Chinese-made Jet Engine to Debut in 2016’, Xinhua (), 27 Aug. 2009; Lu, ‘Chinese Jetliner Development is on Track’.

⁸Tai Ming Cheung, ‘Remaking Cinderella: The Nature and Development of China's Aviation Industry’, Testimony before the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on China's Emergent Military Aerospace and Commercial Aviation Capabilities; Evan Medeiros, Roger Cliff, Keith Crane and James Mulvenon, A New Direction for China's Defense Industry (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 2005), Ch. 4; James Mulvenon and Samm Tyroler-Cooper, ‘China's Defense Industry on the Path of Reform,’ Report prepared for the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission, June 2009.

¹¹Qiao Juan, ‘Aviation Youth Development Strategy: Understanding ‘Two Merges, Three News, Five Changes, and One Trillion’ from the Perspective of Aviation Youth Development (, , ,’ , , ’),’ China Aviation News (), 26 Oct. 2009, <www.aviationnow.cn/show.php?contentid=14905>.

⁹‘2009 Year-end Domestic and International Aviation Top Ten News Items (2009),’ China Aviation News (), 16 Jan. 2010; ‘Deepen Reform, Renew the Spirit, Welcome New Challenges ( ),’ China Aviation News (), 2 Jan. 2010; ‘Integrate Resources, Strengthen Innovation, Renew Glory: The Official Setting up of AVIC ( ),’ Development (), Nov. 2008.

¹⁰‘Deepen Reform, Renew the Spirit, Welcome New Challenges’; Liu Shengjun, ‘New Posture, New Reform, New Starting Point: AVIC Gets Listed on the Stock Market ( ),’ China Aviation News (), 27 April 2009.

¹²Official AVIC profile, <www.avic.com.cn/index_jtfc.asp>.

¹³Liu, ‘New Posture, New Reform, New Starting Point’.

¹⁴Tai Ming Cheung, personal interview, May 2010.

¹⁵AVIC Defense is one of six new general divisions set up under AVIC: AVIC Commercial Aircraft Engines, AVIC Defense, AVIC Aviation, AVIC Systems, AVIC Helicopter, and AVIC General Aircraft.; See ‘Analysis of the Establishment of AVIC Defense ()’, China Chuandong Market Research (), 1 April 2009, <www.chuandong.com/publish/report/2009/4/report_22_1453.html>.

¹⁶Jon Grevatt, ‘Multibillion-dollar Consolidation and Expansion of China's Defense Industry Begins’, Jane's Defense Weekly, 27 March 2009.

¹⁷‘Analysis of the Establishment of AVIC Defense’; ‘AVIC Defense Opens for Business ( )’, Aviation Precision Manufacturing Technology () Issue 45 (2009), 10.

¹⁸Lu Zhou, ‘Hongdu Aviation as the First Stride in the AVIC Defense Platform (),’ China Securities Journal (), 20 Aug. 2009.

¹⁹Tu Loufang, ‘AVIC Defense is Set up in Beijing: Four High-quality Products to Expand the International Market (  )’, Beijing Daily (), 27 March 2009.

²⁰‘Analysis of the Establishment of AVIC Defense’.

²¹Grevatt, ‘Multibillion-dollar Consolidation and Expansion of China's Defense Industry Begins’.

²²Richard D. Fisher, Jr, ‘Chinese Chengdu J-10 Emerges’, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 14 Jan. 2010.

²³‘First Chinese-made Jet Engine to Debut in 2016’, Xinhua (), 27 Aug. 2009; Gao, ‘Chinese Jetliner Development is on Track ().’

²⁴Tai Ming Cheung, Fortifying China: The Struggle to Build a Modern Defense Economy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP 2009), 123.

²⁵National S&T Mega-Project () website, <www.nmp.gov.cn/zxjs/dxfj/>.

²⁶‘General Secretary Hu Jintao Conducts an Inspection at COMAC (),’ Xinhua (), 17 Jan. 2010, <www.comac.cc/xw/zyxw/201001/20/t20100120_323194.shtml>.

²⁷Xin Dingding, ‘State Fund for Homegrown Jumbo Jet Urged’, China Daily, 27 March 2010.

²⁸‘China Aviation to List Aero-Engine Assets Wholly,’ AvBuyer.com.cn, 24 Nov. 2009, <www.avbuyer.com.cn/e/2009/38443.html>.

²⁹Wang Ying, ‘Aircraft R&D Center Breaks Ground’, China Daily, 13 January 2010, <www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2010-01/13/content_9311543.htm>.

³⁰Song Jingli, ‘Chinese Jumbo Jet Looks Globally for Engines,’ China Daily, 7 April 2010, <www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-04/07/content_9698135.htm>.

³¹‘Settlement of the Big Plane in Shanghai will Drive Industry to Gather in the Vicinity (),’ Shaanxi Provincial Development and Reform Commission () web site, 20 Jan. 2009, <www.sndrc.gov.cn/view.jsp?ID=11708>; Wang, ‘Aircraft R&D Center Breaks Ground’; ‘Chinese and Russian Jets get Western Parts: COMAC Chooses CFM, Irkut Selects Rockwell Collins’, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, 22 Dec. 2009, <www.centreforaviation.com/news/2009/12/22/chinese-and-russian-jets-get-western-parts-comac-chooses-cfm-irkut-selects-rockwell-collins/page1>.

³²‘About Us ()’, ACAE website, </www.acae.com.cn/gywm.html>.

³³Ibid.

³⁴‘ACAE and NUAA Sign Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement ( ),’ ACAE web-site, <www. acae.com.cn/ACAE_XWZX/>.

³⁵Stefano Breschi and Franco Malerba (eds), Clusters, Networks, and Innovation (Oxford: OUP 2007), 3.

³⁶‘First China-made Jet Engine to Debut in 2016’, China Daily, 27 Aug. 2009, <www.china.org.cn/business/2009-08/27/content_18413376.htm>.

³⁷‘First China-made Jet Engine to Debut in 2016’; Gao, ‘Chinese Jetliner Development is on Track’.

³⁸‘First Batch of C919 Still Adopt Imported Engines’, People's Daily, 10 March 2010, <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6914533.html>.

³⁹‘All Facets of Work of Analyzing Domestically Produced Big Plane Engine Suppliers Begin (),’ AVBuyer.com.cn, 7 April 2010, <http://news.avbuyer.com.cn/Article/2010-04-07/247998_1.shtml>.

⁴⁰Ibid.

⁴¹‘Settlement of the Big Plane in Shanghai will Drive Industry to Gather in the Vicinity ( )’; Wang Ying, ‘Aircraft R&D Center Breaks Ground’; ‘Chinese and Russian Jets get Western Parts: COMAC Chooses CFM, Irkut Selects Rockwell Collins’,

⁴²For a complete list of supply agreements to date, see Richard Aboulafia, ‘COMAC C919’, Program briefing by the Teal Group, July 2010.

⁴³‘Singapore Air Show Offers Sneak Peek of C919 Aircraft’, China Daily, 2 Feb. 2010, <www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-02/02/content_9411549.htm>.

⁴⁴‘Chinese and Russian Jets get Western Parts: COMAC Chooses CFM, Irkut Selects Rockwell Collins’.

⁴⁵‘Aerospace Firm Wins C919 Deal’, People's Daily, 23 April 2010, <http://english. people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90864/6960634.html>.

⁴⁶Cheung, Fortifying China: The Struggle to Build a Modern Defense Economy, 197.

⁴⁷Bradley Perrett, ‘Heading to Market: AVIC Aircraft Restructuring Moves Toward Raising Funds and Commercial Discipline’, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 16 Nov. 2009, 28–9.

⁴⁸‘Domestically Produced 200-Ton-Class Large-Scale Military-Use Transporter Will Appear at the End of the Year (Pictures) ( 200 ()),’ 163.com, 5 Nov. 2009, <http://war.news.163.com/09/1105/15/5NC87PQT00011 MTO.html>; Bradley Perrett and David Fulghum, ‘China Inc.: Beijing's Next-generation Fighter is Due in Service in 2017–2019’, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 16 Nov. 2009, 26–7.

⁴⁹Perrett, ‘Heading to Market: AVIC Aircraft Restructuring Moves Toward Raising Funds and Commercial Discipline’.

⁵⁰Chu Shuiang, ‘When Will the Domestically Produced 200-Ton-Class Military-Use Big Plane Soar into the Sky; Capabilities No Less than Those of the US and Russia ( 200 )’, People's Daily, 14 Nov. 2009, accessed via 10 Dec. 2009 Sogou.com cache of <http://military.people.com.cn/BIG5/52934/67858/10377653.html>; ‘Domestically Produced Military-Use Big Plane: Will Not Have a Test Flight in the Short Term ( ),’ China International Strategy () website, 14 Nov. 2009, <http://mil.chinaiiss.com/content/2009-11-14/14102211_2.shtml>; ‘Chinese Air Force's Military-Use 200-Ton-Class Big Plane's Upcoming Appearance Attracts Speculation from the Outside World ( 200 ),’ Sina.com, 14 Nov. 2009, <http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/s/2009-11-14/0942573826.html>; ‘Domestically Produced 200-Ton-Class Large-Scale Military-Use Transporter Will Appear at the End of the Year’.

⁵¹Settlement of the Big Plane in Shanghai will Drive Industry to Gather in the Vicinity ()’.

⁵²Both cite Science and Technology Daily () as the source of the story. ‘Science Life: When Will the ‘China Heart’ be Installed in the Domestically Produced Big Plane (: ’)’, web-site for the Central Government of the PRC, 20 Jan. 2009, <www.gov.cn/fwxx/kp/2009-01/20/content_1209835.htm>; Gao Lu and Liu Jimei, ‘Getting to the Root of the Matter: When Will the ‘China Heart’ be Installed in the Domestically Produced Big Plane (’ ’),’ People's Daily, 20 Jan. 2009, <http://scitech.people.com.cn/GB/8699422.html>.

⁵³Perrett and Fulghum, ‘China Inc.: Beijing's next-generation fighter is due in service in 2017–2019’. In addition, an article in Xinhua indicates that the airlifter may initially use the D30 engine, followed later by either the WS-18 or FWS-10: ‘China's Domestically Produced Military-Use 200-Ton-Class Big Plane Will Appear Soon; The World Watches with Interest ( 200 )’, Xinhua, 11 Nov. 2009, <http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-11/11/content_ 12434548.htm>.

⁵⁴Chu Shuiang, ‘When Will the Domestically Produced 200-Ton-Class Military-Use Big Plane Soar into the Sky; Capabilities No Less than those of the US and Russia ( 200 )’; ‘Domestically Produced Military-Use Big Plane: Will Not Have a Test Flight in the Short Term ()’; ‘Domestically Produced Military-Use Big Plane: Will Not Have a Test Flight in the Short Term (2) ( (2))’, China.com, 14 Nov. 2010, <http://military.china.com/zh_cn/top01/11053250/20091114/15701218_1.html>; ‘Chinese Air Force's Military-Use 200-Ton-Class Big Plane's Upcoming Appearance Attracts Speculation from the Outside World ( 200 )’, Sina.com, 14 Nov. 2009, <http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/s/2009-11-14/0942573826.html>.

⁵⁵Ibid.

⁵⁶Cheung, ‘The Chinese Defense Economy's Long March from Imitation to Innovation,’ 326–7.

⁵⁷Ibid.

⁵⁸Dieter Ernst, Policy Studies 54: A New Geography of Knowledge in the Electronics Industry? Asia's Role in Global Innovation Networks (Honolulu, HI: East West Center 2009), 9–10.

⁵⁹Cheung, ‘The Chinese Defense Economy's Long March from Imitation to Innovation’, 330–1; Rebecca Henderson and Kim Clark, ‘Architectural Innovation: Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms’, Administrative Science Quarterly 35/1 (1990), 10, as cited in Cheung, ‘The Chinese Defense Economy's Long March from Imitation to Innovation’, 330.

⁶⁰Ernst, Policy Studies 54, 9–10.

⁶¹Richard Aboulafia, email correspondence, May 2010.

⁶²Richard Aboulafia, ‘COMAC C919’, Program briefing by the Teal Group, July 2010.

⁶³Zuo Likun, ‘China Works on C919 Jumbo Jet Design’, China Daily, 3 March 2010, <www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/03/content_9532832.htm>.

⁶⁴Hou Lei, ‘COMAC Plans to Sell 2,000 C919 Jetliners in 20 Years’, China Daily, 5 Feb. 2010, <www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-02/05/content_9436933.htm>.

⁶⁵Tu Lei, ‘Airlines Consider Buying C919’, Global Times, 5 Feb. 2010, <http://business.globaltimes.cn/industries/2010-02/503772.html>.

⁶⁶‘More State Financial Support for Homegrown Jumbo Jet Called for’, People's Daily, 27 March 2010, <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/6932458.html>.

⁶⁷‘Singapore Air Show Offers Sneak Peek of C919 Aircraft’, China Daily, 2 Feb. 2010, <www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-02/02/content_9411549.htm>.

⁶⁸Hou Lei, ‘COMAC Plans to Sell 2,000 C919 Jetliners in 20 Years’; Tu Lei, ‘Airlines Consider Buying C919’.

⁶⁹Zhou Yan, ‘Pudong gets C919 Final Assembly Line’, China Daily, 19 Nov. 2009, <www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-11/19/content_8999456.htm>.

⁷⁰Joy Finnegan, ‘LEAP-X1C for COMAC C919’, Aviation Today, 22 Dec. 2009, <www.aviationtoday.com/regions/usa/LEAP-X1C-for-COMAC-C919_65227.html>.

⁷¹‘Singapore Air Show Offers Sneak Peek of C919 Aircraft’.

⁷²Richard Aboulafia, email correspondence, 15 April 2010.

⁷³Richard Aboulafia, author interview, Feb. 2010.

⁷⁴Ibid.

⁷⁵‘China Refutes the J-20 uses F-117 Copies,’ UPI.com, 27 Jan. 2011, <www.upi. com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/01/27/China-refutes-the-J-20-uses-F-117-copies/UPI-93271296127800/>.

⁷⁶Ibid.

⁷⁷Song Shengxia, ‘J-20 Stealth Fighter Jet “Innovative, not Stolen from US Plane’”, Global Times, 25 Jan. 2011, <http://military.globaltimes.cn/china/2011-01/616283.html>.

⁷⁸Tony Capaccio, ‘Pentagon Still Learning China Stealth Jet Details, Morrell Says’, Bloomberg, 26 Jan. 2011, <www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-26/pentagon-still-learning-china-stealth-jet-details-morrell-says.html>.

⁷⁹Elisabeth Bumiller, ‘US Doubts ’99 Jet Debris Gave China Stealth Edge’, New York Times, 25 Jan. 2011, <www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/world/asia/26stealth.html?_r =1&partner=rss&emc=rss>.

⁸⁰Song Shengxia, ‘J-20 Stealth Fighter Jet “Innovative, not Stolen from US Plane.’”

⁸¹‘China Dismisses Stealth Tech as Stolen,’ Daily Telegraph, 26 Jan. 2011, <www.dailytelegraph.com.au/china-dismisses-stealth-tech-as-stolen/story-fn6e1m7z-1225994822195>.

⁸²Elisabeth Bumiller, ‘US Doubts '99 Jet Debris Gave China Stealth Edge’.

⁸³Jeremy Page, ‘Stealth Espionage Claims Refuted in China’, 26 Jan. 2011, <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013604576103873339685848.html>.

⁸⁴Cheung, ‘The Chinese Defense Economy's Long March from Imitation to Innovation’, 326–7.