China has officially launched a new multi-billion dollar jet engine conglomerate with almost 100,000 employees at the weekend, as Beijing seeks to become an aerospace power and compete with the likes of Rolls Royce and General Electric.
The Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) has registered capital of 50 billion yuan ($7.5 billion), and previous reports said it would incorporate subsidiaries of a series of state-owned firms, including the Aviation Industrial Corp. of China (AVIC).
President Xi Jinping said founding the company was a “strategic move” to make China an aviation power and modernize the military, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China does not make large commercial jet engines of its own and the country’s narrow-body airliner, the C919, is powered by engines from CFM International, a venture between GE of the United States and France’s Safran. The best aircraft in China’s air force use engines built in Russia, Xinhua said.
Beijing is looking to change that with the creation of a new national champion in the field as it seeks the prestige of having its own aviation sector.

Source: Arab News