With the U.S.-China strategic competition getting fiercer day by day, there are speculations that China is weaponizing its strong purchasing power by purchasing large quantities of Airbus airliners in Europe.
According to China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Air China International (Air China), China’s state-owned airlines on the 3rd (local time), these three companies announced on the 1st that they would purchase Airbus A320 passenger planes at once.
A total of 292 passenger planes have been agreed to be delivered by the three companies by 2027, with a total contract value of $37.2 billion (about 48 trillion won).
The ‘group purchase’ of Airbus passenger planes by Chinese airlines is eye-catching in that it was made amid evaluations that bilateral relations had fallen to the worst level since diplomatic ties were established in 1979 as strategic competition between the US and China intensified.
As Boeing of the United States and Airbus of Europe have been competing fiercely for the world’s largest commercial aircraft market in China, some observers say that China has weaponized its strong purchasing power.
Despite the deterioration of US-China relations, the US government has been hoping that China will actively purchase its Boeing airliners.
In particular, the United States has brought strong dissatisfaction, saying that the Chinese side is not purchasing Boeing airliners as promised in the US-China trade agreement signed during the former administration of Donald Trump.
Catherine Tai, the head of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), expressed dissatisfaction with China’s implementation of the trade agreement at the end of last year, citing the lack of commercial aircraft purchases as a major complaint.
Boeing also expressed dissatisfaction with China’s mass purchase of Airbus airliners, saying that there was a political background.
“It is disappointing that geopolitical differences are becoming a constraint on US aircraft exports,” Boeing said in a statement.
China’s bulk purchase of Airbus airliners could be an unspoken protest to the US, which is putting pressure on the country in all directions, including diplomacy, security, trade, technology, and human rights.
At the same time, China has shown favor with Europe, where China strongly hopes to improve relations.
Under the Joe Biden administration, as the United States restored relations with key allies such as Europe and began to build anti-authoritarian solidarity based on common values such as democracy and human rights, China felt the need to maintain amicable relations with Europe even stronger. have.
While fierce competition with Airbus was taking place, Boeing had many bad things in the past.
In 2018 and 2019, a series of large-scale accidents in which Boeing 737 Max aircraft crashed one after another in Indonesia and Ethiopia increased the market’s anxiety about the safety of Boeing’s next-generation flagship product, the 737 Max.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but in March, a Boeing 737-800 belonging to Eastern Airlines crashed in China, killing 132 people.
In the competition between Airbus and Boeing, Airbus laughed at the moment, but as China is putting its domestic passenger planes into the market in earnest, the competition in the Chinese airliner market is expected to intensify in the future.
The C919 passenger plane, developed by China Commercial Aircraft (COMAC), a Chinese state-owned aircraft manufacturer, completed its last test flight in May and is expected to be delivered to customers for the first time soon.
The importance of the Chinese civil aircraft market, which is rapidly growing, is growing day by day for Boeing and Airbus, the two major airliner manufacturers.
Boeing predicted last year that Chinese airlines would need 8,700 new aircraft, including freighters, by 2040.