Trump appeared to be directing his tweets at hardliners in his administration, referring to a proposal to block General Electric Co (GE) from selling jet engines to China. “I want China to buy our jet engines, the best in the World,” he wrote. China is using the engines to develop its own airliner, Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd’s (COMAC, 中國商飛) C919, to compete with Boeing Co and Airbus SE. The Journal said that US officials worry that Beijing could reverse-engineer the engine and enter the engine market. Another goal of the US proposal reportedly is to slow development of the COMAC airliner.

Source: Taipei Times February 19, 2020 15:56 UTC