The first C919 was delivered to China Eastern Airlines, the model launch operator in 2022. Credit: comac
Chinese airlines began sending Boeing Jets to the US, launching their 737 maximum landings at the group’s Operation Hub on April 20th in Seattle. The first returns came after China ordered the airline to stop accepting Boeing delivery as part of a backlash against US tariffs on Chinese-made goods.
But that’s not all. A maximum of 8S of the 337, which is being prepared at Boeing’s Zhoushan facility for the three Chinese airlines, was sent back to the US, apparently according to the aviation current.
The plane back to Seattle was one of the largest jets of the 737 sporting the Xiamen colouring and waiting at Zhoushan for a final gathering and delivery.
Analysts warn that if China’s Boeing ban continues, it could backfire Chinese plane maker Comac before it becomes globally competitive. Aviation celebrities are looking at China as the top commercial aviation market of the future. For years, Boeing has been America’s top industrial exporter to China.
In 2024, the US sent nearly $12 billion worth of airplanes, spacecraft and parts to China. To provide alternatives to airlines, the Chinese government has poured billions into Shanghai-based com to build a domestic equivalent of Boeing and Airbus commercial jets.
Trump has great power
US President Donald Trump holds a great power to stop American businesses from supporting comac. In 2020, during the trade war, the big names even thought of blocking it. And based on repeated US national security concerns, he was able to revisit the aviation ban.
In short, by involving planes in this trade war, Beijing risks exposing one of its weaknesses and highlighting US control over Comac. The C919 model is airworthy only thanks to critical technologies offered by US companies such as Ge Aerospace, Honeywell and RTX.
And to throw a little extra: wrapped in mid-April on a Southeast Asia tour to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia.
What does China think?
On April 17, the Chinese government confirmed that the US would “ignor” the “Tax Number Game” played by the United States after the White House previously announced that Asian countries face tariffs of up to 245%.
“The repeated imposition of unusually high tariffs by the US on China has become a game of numbers that have no practical economic importance,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in its communique.
The department further accused the United States of “blackmail and coercion,” claiming that these measures by Washington “expose the US tactics to weaponize tariffs and use them as tools.”
“There are no winners in tariffs or trade wars. China does not want to fight this war, but it is not afraid of that either,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeatedly promised that Asian countries will “fight back decisively.”
The trade war launched by Trump escalated on April 2 with the announcement of “mutual tariffs” around the world. This is a measure that was reversed a week later due to a decline in the market and rising costs of US debt financing.
He decided to mitigate the attacks in most countries by applying the generalized 10% tariff, while also increasing Chinese tariffs in response to retaliation.
Washington had imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, while Beijing raised tariffs on US products to 125%.
Meanwhile, the US has decided to exempt many Chinese technology products from tariffs, but Trump has announced tariffs on semiconductors that will be applied “in the near future.”
