Trump blacklisting jolts China’s ambitions to take on Boeing

A US move to increase pressure on Chinese companies could threaten the nation’s ambitions to compete with Boeing and Airbus. The Trump administration’s addition of Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, better known as Comac, to a Defense Department list of companies with alleged Chinese military ties comes just days after a breakthrough in the state-backed jet manufacturer’s effort to win customers when an Indonesian airline agreed to buy its planes. A spokesperson for Comac had no immediate comment. If President-elect Joe Biden doesn’t reverse the move, American investors will be prohibited from buying securities of companies on the list, and will have to divest their holdings by November. That won’t impact Comac because it’s not publicly traded, but other companies Trump initially put on such lists -- including Comac shareholder Aviation Industry Corp. of China -- have since found themselves targets for more severe sanctions, including curbs on access to American technology. That could be potentially crippling for Comac, which relies on American imports for its jet engines and other parts, according to Shukor Yusof, founder and aviation analyst at Endau Analytics. “China doesn’t have the domestic capability to provide the necessary components so they’re very much reliant on US components,” Yusof said. Comac’s C919, a narrow-body alternative to Boeing’s 737 model and Airbus’s A320, is in its test phase. About 60% of the main suppliers to the C919 are American companies. “The engines are the hardest part,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst George Ferguson said. “There are only two and both have American leads: GE and Raytheon.”<br/>