Major Russia-China aircraft joint venture falters - South China Morning Post

The project, launched in 2017, envisaged that the CR929-600 jetliner would carry 280 passengers, have its first flight as early as 2023, and go on to compete with industry giants Boeing and Airbus. 

However, SCMP reports that the Chinese partner is keen to involve international manufacturers in providing the undercarriage, while Russia insists on its own alternative models - which rank lower in safety and performance. SCMP writes that China is also considering courting Rolls-Royce or General Electric over input to the widebody passenger plane’s engine - part of the project Russia had been hoping to have a stake in.

General Electric stopped working on the Russian market on March 9, and Rolls-Royce stopped supplying cars. 

Funding difficulties are also slowing Russia’s input into this major joint venture, and China’s focus on international partners on components is seen in Moscow, SCMP reports citing an unnamed source, “as showing a white flag to the West amid global sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” 

In addition to the tensions over engineering input, profit-sharing is also under a cloud. SCMP cites a different unnamed source as saying that China wants to freeze Russia out of the potentially lucrative Chinese market but leave it 70 percent of the profit from other geographies. 

SCMP’s source noted that Russia knows the new plane will struggle to win over customers from Boeing and Airbus, and that it is the Chinese market that will be the most profitable. Without the promise of significant gains and with faltering avenues for practical engineering input to the project - Russia itself is questioning the future of its involvement in the project, SCMP reports.

 

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said on the record that the project "is not going in the direction that suits us". "Our participation is getting smaller and smaller," Borisov stated and added: "Our participation is decreasing and decreasing. I don't want to predict the future of this project, if we are going to leave it or not, but for now this is really the way” SCMP quotes Borisov as saying.

The SCMP story also cited expert Eagle Yin from the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies in Beijing, as stressing China’s current priority of improving relations with the west, following Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, and that while the US remains hostile, the EU seems more promising.