Even as China struggles with daunting financial and demographic problems, it has been going from strength to strength technologically. The No. 2 economy dominates solar-energy and electric-vehicle supply chains. It struck back in electronics with the latest Huawei phone powered by domestic 7-nanometer semiconductors.
Not quite. The C919 is no match for the established workhorses of the sky. “From a design perspective, it can’t hold a candle to the 737 or A-320,” says Scott Kennedy, senior adviser in Chinese economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The plane has to clock hours and meet stringent tests,” he says. “They can’t overcome these hurdles in a short space of time.”