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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
China has launched its first aircraft-engine manufacturer in an attempt to wean itself off Western suppliers.
The state-owned Aero-Engine Group of China was created by combining a group of existing aircraft-engine companies, according to local media reports.
It has about 50bn yuan ($7.5bn) in registered capital and will develop both military and commercial engines.
China already makes its own planes, but has struggled for decades to develop engines that meet global requirements.
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China Launches Own Aircraft Engine-Maker to Rival the West
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Might not be suitable for persons suffering from weak hearts.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Monday August 29 2016, @11:33PM
... but maybe not. While it's true that the Chinese have historically been very good at cloning other country's technology, a jet engine may not be quite so easy to do. The Russians also have a history of this sort of thing and they actually do build decent jet engines. Yet, no one outside of Russia will buy them, and it may be worth noting that Russian airline manufacturers often built their planes so that they can accept Western engines, as well as Western avionics. So, while the Russians don't have to buy GE, Rolls Royce, or Pratt & Whitney engines for their planes, they can't build them to a high enough standard that anyone in the West wants to buy them. The Russian engines meet the international standards, or at least U.S. standards in that planes equipped with them are allowed to fly in U.S. airspace (Cubana regularly overflies the US to get to Canada with Russian airliners, and the Russian military regularly flies a Tu-214 over the U.S. courtesy of the Open Skies treaty [wikipedia.org]), but they have a limited market outside of Russia.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by jcross on Tuesday August 30 2016, @12:53AM
Interesting, but China doesn't really need to sell the engines abroad. As the world's second-biggest military spender, they should have a fairly large demand just from that, and it should continue to grow as more and more Chinese are wealthy enough to fly domestically. Perhaps more importantly to them, if war ever breaks out they'll be able to ramp up plane production without needing an ally to sell them engines. I expect that's the major reason for Russia making their own engines as well. It doesn't really matter whether Russian airlines fit foreign engines on their planes or not, as long as they can ramp up MiG production to arbitrary levels if needed.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday August 30 2016, @05:15AM
If war breaks out, the last thing the Chinese have to worry about is making its own engines. While it can mine domestically all the titanium it needs to make the fan blades, the Chinese are not a major producer of oil. If you're going to be in a war, it's useful to have the oil in order to produce your own jet fuel. The United States and Russia can; the Chinese cannot.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday August 30 2016, @07:00AM
If you're going to be in a war, it's useful to have the oil in order to produce your own jet fuel. The United States and Russia can; the Chinese cannot.
...China is "forecast to overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest crude importer in 2016" and since 2012, has been the fourth-greatest oil producer in the world - surpassing the United States...
from wikipedia [wikipedia.org] (emphasis mine). I'm sure domestic consumption would take a back seat if push came to shove.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2016, @01:45AM
It doesn't take as much jet fuel for China to shoot a missile, as is does for the US to send the target 1/2 way round the world to get shot down.
Same for boats, don't even bother thinking about people.