China to step up aviation self-reliance by 2025 amid US tensions, Shanghai to manufacture key engine parts
- Shanghai is already home to the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), which makes the home-grown narrow-bodied C919 passenger jet
- Lingang New Area, which is already home to Tesla’s Gigafactory 3, will develop ‘key links in the supply chain’ as China seeks to become more self-reliant
Efforts by China to make its aviation industry more self-reliant will increase in the next five years, with plans in place to manufacture key parts for commercial engines in Shanghai by 2025.
China has also already started to produce a new wide-bodied passenger jet with Russia – the CR929 – amid growing restrictions from the aviation industry in the United States, according to a development plan released by the Shanghai government this week.
“Lingang New Area must build an open civil aviation industrial ecosystem and an international collaborative innovation system to, develop and guarantee domestically produced large aircraft and civil aviation engines, and realise independent control of core technologies and key links in the supply chain,” said the Shanghai government, quoting an unnamed representative from the Hi-tech Industry and Science and Technology Innovation Department of the Lingang New Area management committee.
Beijing has touted the development of Lingang New Area, which is located in the southeast tip of Shanghai, as the new driving force of hi-tech investment from foreign companies, with it already home to Tesla’s Gigafactory 3.