Aerospace sector fears sanctions
- Source: Global Times
- [06:56 February 02 2010]
- Comments
By Zhang Wen
A Boeing 737 aircraft parks at Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport. Xi'an Aircraft International Corporation (XAIC) delivered the 1,500th vertical fin for Boeing's best-selling B737 aircraft January 26, 2010. Photo: Xinhua
Aerospace giant Boeing said Monday it had not been notified of any sanctions imposed by China in retaliation for a major US arms sale to Taiwan, AFP reported.
Beijing on Saturday canceled military exchanges with Washington, announcing that China would implement sanctions on US companies involved in the sale. Through its McDonnell Douglas unit, Boeing is one of the companies.
"We have yet to receive any notice" related to possible sanctions, Boeing China spokesman Wang Yukui told the Global Times, adding that any arm sales by the company in the military defense field is decided by the US government.
China is Boeing's biggest international market. Until June 2009, among a total of 1,383 China's civil aircraft, 736 (53 percent) are Boeing aircraft.
Aerospace executives reacted with concern Sunday to a Chinese threat to impose sanctions on US firms.
According to the Financial Times, Giovanni Bisignani, director-general of the International Air Transport Association, called for fresh talks between Beijing and Washington to avert a crisis over the arms package.
"At a moment in which the world is in crisis (and) China is playing a very important role in overcoming and pushing for recovery it would be a very, very difficult and unhappy situation" for sanctions to be imposed, he said.
But US Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Asia-Pacific region Wallace Gregson said yesterday in Tokyo that the US remained committed to helping Taiwan arm itself.
"The US is ... obligated to ensure Taiwan's self-defense capability, and the United States fully intends to meet every one of our obligations there, and we will continue to do so into the future," he said.
The Pentagon on Friday approved the $6.4 billion sale of Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters, mine-hunting ships and other weaponry supplied by Boeing, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to Taiwan.
Ye Hailin, a researcher with the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that since it is the first time Beijing has vowed sanctions on US companies, "it will not just pay lip service."
"From now on, US arms sales to Taiwan have to pay the costs, but this cost will keep rising. As long as China continues to do so firmly, I believe that, in the end, as the cost gets higher, the US will back off," Jin Canrong, a professor in the Inter-national Relations Department at the People's University of China, told the Global Times.
Song Xiaojun, chief editor of Chinese military magazine Naval and Merchant Ship, questioned whether the sanctions would be enough to make the US act otherwise.
"Both parties in the US are now focused on midterm elections scheduled for November. The major arms companies are increasing their political contributions for fiscal year 2010. Both Lockheed Martin and Boeing have more than $1 million in donations, and more than 50 percent of it will go to the Democratic Party. The sales to Taiwan bring big benefits to arms companies. So unless their business in China earns them more than the arms sales, the sanction is only symbolic," he said.
News analyst Zhang Shaowei warned that China should be aware that the US may hit back by increasing tariffs for Chinese products, giving China a hard time on intellectual properties, network security and fair competition issues, as well as limiting the cooperation between American and Chinese companies.
Agencies contributed to this story
