AviationNews – The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has released a comprehensive research report warning that state-backed plane maker COMAC poses a significant threat to global aerospace markets. The prominent Washington-based think tank urges an immediate transatlantic alliance between the United States and the European Union to block Western carriers from purchasing Chinese-manufactured commercial aircraft.
The newly published policy study details how billions of dollars in unfair industrial subsidies from Beijing fuel the rapid rise of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). Highlighting a coordinated campaign of state-directed capitalism, the report outlines how these massive financial injections allow the Chinese manufacturer to bypass typical market-driven development timelines. The timing of the report coincides with COMAC‘s aggressive push to secure international certification and export orders for its C919 narrow-body passenger jet. To counter this rapid expansion, the ITIF advises Western governments to coordinate market-access restrictions, ensuring that state-subsidized aerospace products cannot freely dismantle the established duopoly of Boeing and Airbus.
From a technical standpoint, the report highlights that despite China’s domestic manufacturing push, COMAC remains deeply dependent on Western components, particularly for propulsion. The C919 relies on aircraft turbofan engines supplied by CFM International, a joint venture between American giant GE Aerospace and French company Safran. Consequently, the ITIF recommends implementing strict, renewed export controls on jet engines and foundational dual-use avionics technologies. Restricting access to these critical Western-engineered subsystems would create an immediate operational bottleneck, effectively capping China’s ability to scale up commercial production of competitive, large-scale jetliners.
“Allowing a heavily subsidized state champion to reshape the global aviation landscape undermines fair competition and directly threatens Western industrial capability,” stated an analyst involved in the ITIF technology policy review. “A unified transatlantic front on procurement and export regulations represents the most effective mechanism to protect global aerospace innovation from state-sponsored market distortions.”
The strategic warnings from the ITIF highlight an impending geopolitical shift from localized trade friction to broad technological warfare within commercial aviation. Moving forward, the proposed transatlantic alliance will require intense coordination between regulators in Washington and Brussels to balance national security priorities with global supply chain dependencies. Western policymakers must act swiftly to tighten strategic export control frameworks and reinforce collaborative defense lines before state-backed alternatives achieve permanent market penetration.
The ITIF report sounds a clear alarm regarding COMAC‘s state-subsidized distortion of the international commercial aviation sector. By advocating for a unified US-EU purchasing ban and renewed export limits on critical jet engines, the think tank outlines a protective economic framework. Ultimately, the success of these measures depends on whether Western nations can successfully align their trade policies to curb China’s rising aerospace ambitions.