- The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) relies on US suppliers for the C919, but they could be placed on China’s unreliable entities list
- Chief technology officer also denies report from CrowdStrike alleging China used hacking and spying to obtain technology for the twin-engined single-aisle aircraft
China's efforts to build its first commercial passenger jet to compete with Airbus and Boeing could be adversely affected by the trade war with the United States as American suppliers of key components could be prevented from doing business in the mainland, one of the designers of the flagship C919 aircraft has warned.
Yang Zhigang, who works for the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), also strongly denied a report published last week that it used widespread hacking and spying to steal technologies to develop the C919, calling the allegations "ridiculous" and "impossible".
"If the trade war continues and China puts our suppliers on an unreliable entity list (prohibiting them from doing business in China), it will surely affect us. For instance, we are using GE (Aviation) engines, and I don't think China is able to produce engines that can replace GE ones," Yang told the South China Morning Post.
One potential casualty is Honeywell International, which supplies a number of components for the C919, including the electrical system and landing gear. Chinese official press suggested in July that the company could be banned because its components are used in some of the weapons systems included in the US government's US$2 billion arms sale to Taiwan, a deal which Beijing strongly opposed.
If the trade war continues and China puts our suppliers on an unreliable entity list (prohibiting them from doing business in China), it will surely affect us. For instance, we are using GE (Aviation) engines, and I don't think China is able to produce engines that can replace GE onesYang Zhigang
"A chosen supplier has often made modifications (to their product) according to our requirements, and if a chosen supplier (in the US) needs to be replaced by a European one or even a Chinese one, it will take a period of time," Yang added.
"For our suppliers, they have risks as well. (A trade ban) could force Comac to cultivate potential competitors to them."
The twin-engined single-aisle C919 can seat up to 168 passengers and is intended to compete against the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320neo, with the first commercial delivery scheduled in 2021 to China Eastern Airlines.
Last week's report by cyberspace security company CrowdStrike charged that Comac had used the Jiangsu provincial bureau of the Ministry of State Security, Beijing's spy agency, to steal intellectual property from foreign suppliers to speed up the development of the C919.
"Comac, like Boeing, is a manufacturer with a lot of suppliers, and we buy aircraft engines from (General Electric) for instance," said Yang, who is the chief technology officer at the Beijing Aeronautical Science and Technology Research Institute, a research unit of Comac.
"We only look after the aircraft as a whole " we give our requirements to suppliers and then integrate the supplied components (into the aircraft). If you are talking about a specific component of a specific system, that is usually the job of a supplier (to design and manufacture), not us.
"We are basically following what Boeing is doing … we design the aircraft as a whole and then rely on suppliers to make it happen."
Comac did not completely start building the C919 from scratch, conceded Yang, but relied on existing technology and suppliers.
"If you want to get a new jacket, you won't start by planting your own cotton," he added on the sidelines of the China Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.
Yang's comments mark the first direct response from Comac to the CrowdStrike report which alleged that China used "a mixture of cyber actors sourced from China's underground hacking scene, the Ministry of State Security officers, company insiders, and state directives to fill key technology and intelligence gaps in a bid to bolster dual-use turbine engines which could be used for both energy generation and to enable its narrow-body twin jet airliner, the C919".
CrowdStrike claimed that the Jiangsu bureau of China's spy agency assigned two officers to lead efforts to acquire the technology, with one team specifically in charge of hacking. The other, led by Xu Yanjun, was tasked with recruiting workers from inside foreign aviation companies.
Xu, who is also known as Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, was extradited to the United States in October 2018 with the help of Belgian authorities on espionage charges. Xu pleaded not guilty in October last year and remains in custody in Ohio awaiting trial.
The US has continually pressured China over its trade policies and alleged theft of US companies' intellectual property, while China is consider implementing a trade blacklist.
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