A sale of 30 Airbus jets to China is being blocked by Chinese officials because of plans by Airbus parent European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Co (EADS) to sell Taiwan a satellite, Le Figaro reported, citing no sources.
The newspaper didn't indicate which Airbus models are being blocked, when the order was placed or which airline was to receive the planes. Airbus Industrie declined to comment. EADS officials didn't immediately return calls.
French President Jacques Chirac sought in June to prevent a conflict by asking Lagardere SCA, which owns 11 percent of EADS and was the original parent company of the satellite maker, to cancel the contract with Taiwan, worth US$77 million. Lagardere refused, the newspaper said.
"It wouldn't be unprecedented for the Chinese political establishment to interfere in the commercial acquisition of aircraft," said Doug McVitie, managing director of Arran Aerospace, an aviation consulting company based in Scotland.
All aircraft sales in China go through a central purchasing authority before going to airlines, McVitie said, so there is "unparalleled state control over aircraft acquisition."
EADS owns 80 percent of Toulouse, France-based Airbus while BAE Systems Plc owns the remainder. While EADS derives the greater part of its revenue from Airbus sales, it also sells satellites, missiles, rockets, helicopters and defense electronics.
A spokeswoman for the French president's office said that Chirac was unable to make Lagardere drop its contract to sell Taiwan the satellite after the French government had approved the sale earlier.
She said that during Chirac's trip to China last month, he had explained that the satellite was no threat to China and the matter didn't prompt a threat of retaliation. The spokeswoman said she was unaware of the story in Le Figaro.
The French government found itself in conflict with China early in the 1990s after it approved the sale of Dassault Mirage fighter jets to Taiwan. In retaliation, China ordered France to close a consulate in Guangzhou. In 1994, the French and Chinese governments announced jointly that French companies couldn't sell arms to Taiwan though they could bid for Chinese contracts.
The article in Le Figaro didn't indicate whether the satellite being sold to Taiwan is for military reconnaissance or civilian telecommunications.
A year ago, Taiwan media reported that Taiwan reassigned a satellite-building contract to France's Matra Marconi Space after Germany's Dornier GmbH was unable to obtain an export license because of pressure on the German government from China.
China has the world's fastest-growing air passenger traffic, with annual expansion of 7.7 percent compared with average growth worldwide of less than 5 percent. The world's planemakers expect China to be the second-biggest market after the US in the next two decades with orders worth more than US$100 billion.
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