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Wheels Up for COMAC, Gear Down for Boeing
As China’s airliner ambitions take off, America’s aviation icon is left circling
A COMAC C919 rolls to the end of the runway at Shanghai Pudong, a clean-lined aircraft shimmering in the haze as ground crews finish their checks. In the background, a row of pristine Boeing 737 MAX aircraft sit unused, tails high, their future uncertain. The scene is an imagined one, but it’s reflective of reality: China is changing course, and one of the largest aerospace shifts in modern history is underway. Reports indicate that Beijing has instructed its domestic airlines to stop ordering U.S.-built passenger aircraft. The move is not simply an act of retaliation or trade war chess — it’s a signpost for a deeper transformation in industrial strategy, technological sovereignty, and geopolitical signaling.
The gravitational pull of China’s aviation market is well understood by insiders. In 2019, Chinese airlines carried over 660 million passengers, representing more than a trillion revenue passenger kilometers annually. The pandemic cratered that growth curve, but the rebound was swift. Today, passenger-kilometer totals are nearing pre-pandemic levels, with industry expectations of doubling by 2030, although I’m skeptical of that given the continued dominance of high-speed rail and Tencent Meeting (the Chinese…
