This report assesses the effectiveness of China’s industrial policies, using China’s commercial aviation manufacturing industry as a case study. It evaluates China’s efforts to create a national champion in this industry, and analyzes foreign manufacturers’ efforts to protect key technologies when setting up production facilities there. It also offers policy options for foreign governments responding to Chinese policies.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This report assesses the effectiveness of China’s industrial policies, using China’s commercial aviation manufacturing industry as a case study. It evaluates China’s efforts to create a national champion in this industry, and analyzes foreign manufacturers’ efforts to protect key technologies when setting up production facilities there. It also offers policy options for foreign governments responding to Chinese policies.

This monograph assesses China's aerospace capabilities and the extent to which China's participation in commercial aerospace markets and supply chains is contributing to the improvement of those capabilities. It examines China's commercial aviation manufacturing capabilities, its commercial and military capabilities in space, Chinese government efforts to encourage foreign participation in the development of China's aerospace industry, transfers of foreign aerospace technology to China, the extent to which U.S. and other foreign aerospace firms depend on supplies from China, and the implications of these issues for U.S. security interests. China's aerospace industry has advanced at an impressive rate over the past decade, partly due to the increasing participation of its aerospace industry in the global commercial aerospace market and the supply chains of the world's leading aerospace firms. China's current ability to meet demand with indigenous aircraft is limited, however, and much of the demand will be filled by imported aircraft. China's space capabilities have improved rapidly, on the other hand, and it has developed and deployed an increasingly wide range of satellites. China's growing civilian aerospace capabilities are unquestionably contributing to the development of its military aerospace capabilities, but whether the United States could significantly improve its security through alterations of its policy toward civil aerospace cooperation with China without having a significant negative effect on its own economic interests is unclear.

This report assesses Chinese investment in U.S. aviation from 2005 to 2016. It provides context in China’s demand for aviation products and aviation industrial policies, while assessing technology transfers and impact on U.S. competitiveness. Chinese investment in U.S. aviation over the past decade has primarily involved lower-technology general aviation manufacturers that do not affect U.S. competitiveness.

The Dragon Takes Flight: China's Aviation Policy, Achievements, and International Implications analyzes China’s journey toward the development of its C-919 large passenger aircraft. Through the use of primary sources in English and Chinese, including interviews with important players in China’s aviation industry, Levine builds on Michael Porter’s Diamond Model to explore the underlying question of whether or not China will successfully develop a competitive large passenger aircraft. The model serves as a blueprint for determining what China is doing right and what areas need to improve. This study also looks at the potential implications the success of the C-919 may have on Boeing and Airbus and the ways in which both companies might prepare to meet the challenges they face.