USA blocks engine delivery
China's aircraft manufacturer Comac will no longer receive any engine components from the USA for the time being. The Trump administration's decision could slow down production of the A320 competitor Comac C919 in particular, which flies with LEAP engines from the West.
China's own turbofan is not yet ready: the domestic CJ-1000A engine has been undergoing flight tests since 2023 and received approval from the Chinese aviation authority CAAC in the spring of this year. But until it is also approved for the Comac C919 airliner and can go into series production, there is still a lot of water flowing down the Yangtze River. For this reason, Comac is dependent on Western countries for the C919 for the time being - the new "China Airbus" has so far flown exclusively with LEAP-1C engines from CFM International. CFM, in turn, is a joint venture between the engine manufacturers Safran from France and GE Aerosoace from the USA.
This is precisely where the problem that the Chinese are currently facing begins for Comac and the C919. At the behest of US President Donald Trump's administration, they are no longer receiving any engine components from the United States for the time being. At least that's what the New York Times reports. "The Trump administration has suspended the sale of some critical US technologies to China, including those related to jet engines, semiconductors and certain chemicals and machinery," writes the daily newspaper on May 28. The US administration is responding to "China's recent restrictions on the export of critical minerals" to the US, which, according to New York Times informants, "threaten to cripple the supply chains of US companies."
China and the USA at loggerheads
This decision from Beijing is in turn a reaction to the punitive tariffs imposed by Washington on Chinese products. Although these have been suspended in the meantime, China has not eased its embargo on critical minerals to the satisfaction of the US government, according to the New York Times. President Trump has therefore "halted shipments to China of some key products and technologies that are made only in the United States, demonstrating the government's power over global supply chains."
Problem for Comac?
It is unclear whether Comac will directly feel the effects of the latest blockade on the production of the C919. The aircraft manufacturer has not yet issued a statement on the subject. The Chinese can presumably cover a certain period of time with engines and components that have already been delivered. Ideally, the disputes between China and the USA will have been settled at least to the extent that key components from both economies can be delivered to each other again. Nevertheless, the events are likely to provide China with further motivation to press ahead with its "import substitution" programs with increased vigour in order to make itself independent of foreign influences in aircraft construction in the long term.
Parallels with Russia
In the northern neighboring country of Russia, people are already reminded of their own fate when looking at China. The situation evokes "certain associations with the ban on the supply of American Pratt & Whitney PW1400G engines for the MS-21 aircraft", comments the website aviaton21.ru, for example. The USA, like all other Western countries, had put the export of aviation components to Russia on hold in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022. In response, Russia - out of necessity - threw itself fully into the development of the domestic PD-14 turbofan. "Thus, the Russian engine replaced the foreign unit and made it possible to continue the import substitution program, which will ensure the start of serial production and operation of the aircraft in a fully 'Russified' form next year," according to aviation21.ru. The fact that the Western sanctions set the MS-21 program back by years is another matter.
