US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record.
It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation.
The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company.
It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to raise doubts about international relations and aviation safety.
In the midst of competition between the world’s two most powerful nations — the US and China — the latter has supplied counterfeit titanium materials to Boeing.
In so doing, China has tried to cause a US plane to crash, which would spread fear among the US public and cause Americans to distrust their own government, believing that this problem arose because US officials failed to strictly monitor the situation.
It would also have a negative impact on the reputation of Boeing aircraft.
China’s provision of counterfeit titanium materials to Boeing could also have a negative effect on Boeing’s sales performance in the US and foreign markets. A decline in Boeing’s sales would be sure to have a heavy impact on the US’ military and civil aviation industries.
That would give China an opportunity to develop its own aerospace industry and even surpass the US to become the new world leader in the aerospace sector.
Apart from the above-mentioned strategies, China is also trying to spread fear internationally so that other countries that buy Boeing products become distrustful of the US, in the belief that the US deliberately sells substandard products to make money from other countries and use the ill-gotten wealth to increase its investments.
China’s actions therefore go beyond undermining the US’ relations with its allies. China can also exploit each and every opportunity to gain more allies for itself.
China is prepared to take extreme measures to counter the US’ military might, even putting people’s lives at risk by exporting problematic titanium materials to the US. Such unscrupulous behavior in pursuit of its goals has triggered harsh criticism from around the world.
The Chinese Communist Party has never shied away from sacrificing human lives to achieve its goals, so we must be especially cautious about any products that are made in China.
Chen Chun is an international affairs researcher.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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