- [Narrator] From airshow

to test flights in extreme cold weather

China state-owned aircraft manufacturer Comac

has been ramping up the development

of its C919 passenger jet to compete with Boeing and Airbus.

- C919 is an important part of China's

national development strategy

- [Narrator] Though the project is years behind schedule,

Beijing is moving ahead with big plans

at a time when the Coronavirus

has upended the aviation industry around the world.

Last December Comac began the process

of certifying the C919 for commercial operations.

- The large economies have not recovered

as quickly as China

and therefore China's likely share

of future commercial aviation growth

is gonna be somewhat higher.

- [Narrator] Eventually the government hopes the C919

will become the main carrier in the world's biggest

commercial aviation market, but can it succeed?

Chinese President Xi Jinping has had an aviation dream

since he took office in 2012,

to build the country's first commercial civilian airliner.

- (in foreign language)

- [Narrator] For the past two decades,

Airbus and Boeing have benefited

from China's fast-growing commercial aviation market.

Airbus built an assembly plant in China in 2008.

And before the pandemic, a quarter

of all Boeing planes that came off the assembly line

went to China,

and the demand isn't going away anytime soon.

According to Boeing's latest market outlook

from this past October, it expects China to buy

more than 8,400 new airplanes over the next 20 years

with the market valued at a total

of more than $1.7 trillion.

- Is that very good economic reason

for China to want to build its own aircraft.

And that is so that it can fill that market

and save a huge amount of it.

- [Narrator] Timothy Heath is a defense researcher

who's been studying China's national aviation strategy

for more than 15 years.

- [Timothy] The problem is that due to it's

lack of experience, there's a very steep learning curve.

- [Narrator] For instance, compared to Boeing's

more than 100 years of experience,

China started exploring commercial aviation in the 1970s.

So to catch up the Chinese government has been focused

on Comac, which was only established in 2008,

according to the US think tank

The Center for Strategic and International Studies

since Comac's early days it has received

somewhere between $49 and $72 billion in government aid,

far more than the $22 billion that Airbus has received

from European governments,

according to the World Trade Organization.

Heath says while support from Beijing

has helped build successful homegrown companies

and industries, including 5G and artificial intelligence.

It'll take more than money to help the C919 take off.

- The difference is that civilian airliner manufacturers

is an order of magnitude more difficult

then a cell phone technology

and handheld consumer electronics.

- [Narrator] That's because building a commercial aircraft

requires hundreds of thousands of components.

- Their individual components,

which are ridiculously difficult to make

because you have to make them perfectly.

And they have to work

at 35,000 feet in the air for hour upon hour,

land, gas up, and do it again with no problems.

- Scott Kennedy is a senior advisor

at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The non-profit policy research organization receives part

of its funding from some governments

and corporations including Boeing.

Kennedy has been analyzing China's industrial policy

for more than 25 years.

- Most of the parts that the Chinese make

are in the interior or for elements

of the body or the doors.

So the Chinese components are relevant to the plane

but they're not central to the plane's ability to fly.

- [Narrator] The more complex parts are imported.

- [Scott] China depends almost entirely on the US and Europe

for the components that go into the plane from the engine,

to the avionics, to the materials,

to most of what's inside the plane, even.

- [Narrator] According to Kennedy's analysis

only 14 key suppliers are from China

and half of them are joint ventures with foreign companies.

And these joint ventures are one important part

of Comac's plans to advance technologically.

- The Chinese have actually required a support suppliers

to transfer technology in many cases.

That means the Chinese are absorbing technology

and they're learning how to make some of the components.

- [Narrator] But for years,

Western manufacturers have acted to protect their IP

by only supplying old technology.

- It's already an obsolete plane

cause you've been using the oldest

most out of date technology

because the companies don't want to share and give away

their most cutting edge, valuable technologies.

- [Narrator] Still the Trump administration

kept an eye on joint ventures,

concerned that forced technology transfers

could allow China to break into the global jet engine market

and undermined US businesses.

- Then a world of heightened diplomatic tensions

that are growing more severe by the day.

One has to question whether those diplomatic tensions

could eventually bring a project like the C919 to a halt.

- [Narrator] For instance, in early January

the Trump administration added Comac to a list of companies

it says support China's military.

This blacklist could ban Americans

from supplying the plane manufacturer.

Comac didn't respond to a request for comment.

It's uncertain how political tensions will change

during the Biden administration.

But Kennedy says the success of Comac will take longer

than one presidential term.

- Despite all of the state support

and the history of China overcoming

previous technological hurdles.

I still think that we're no closer

then a decade away from Comac being a serious competitor

to Boeing or Airbus.

- [Narrator] Until then China will need to rely

on their jets.

But when the C919 is ready it potentially

has a guaranteed market at home

since Beijing could order it's state-owned airlines

to buy the plane in large numbers.

According to Kennedy's analysis, Comac already had more

than 1,000 orders by the end of 2020.

- These orders have been on the books for a long time

but those numbers on orders are really smoke

and mirrors until they really can prove

that they can deliver and service planes on a regular basis.