The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced that its director, Song Zhiyong, met on Monday with Brendan Nelson, Senior Vice President of Boeing and President of Boeing Global, the international arm of the group.
“They engaged in an in-depth exchange of views on cooperation and development between Boeing and civil aviation in China,” the document states, without providing further details.
The meeting coincided with a new round of trade negotiations between China and the United States in Stockholm, aimed at extending a tariff truce set to expire on August 12.
The economic news portal Sina noted that Nelson had already met in March with the CAAC’s second-in-command and that the American executive expressed a desire to “develop deep cooperation” with China “over the next 50 years.”
Following the tariff escalation initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump in early April, Boeing was sidelined from the Chinese market due to resulting price increases. Additionally, Beijing apparently imposed a veto on the delivery of these aircraft to domestic customers.
The alleged veto was lifted in mid-June with the delivery of a 787-9 Dreamliner to the Chinese airline Juneyao Air, which local media interpreted as a sign of rapprochement between Beijing and Washington after a round of trade negotiations in London days earlier.
In 2018, nearly a quarter of Boeing’s production went to China, but in recent years, the company has not announced major orders from the country due to trade tensions and security concerns.
Following two separate accidents resulting in a total of 346 deaths, China was the first country to ground the 737 Max, a ban that remained in place for nearly five years.
While China has focused on developing its own model, the C919, in recent years, the European company Airbus has been the major beneficiary.
