http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/busin ... bgDUcxoLdA


THE NEW YORK TIMES

G.E. to Share Jet Technology With China in New Joint Venture

By DAVID BARBOZA, CHRISTOPHER DREW and STEVE LOHR

This article was reported by David Barboza, Christopher Drew and
Steve Lohr and written by Mr. Lohr.

Published: January 17, 2011

As China strives for leadership in the world’s most advanced
industries, it sees commercial jetliners — planes that may someday
challenge the best from Boeing and Airbus — as a top prize.

And no Western company has been more aggressive in helping China
pursue that dream than one of the aviation industry’s biggest
suppliers of jet engines and airplane technology, General Electric.

On Friday, during the visit of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, to
the United States, G.E. plans to sign a joint-venture agreement in
commercial aviation that shows the tricky risk-and-reward
calculations American corporations must increasingly make in their
pursuit of lucrative markets in China.

G.E., in the partnership with a state-owned Chinese company, will be
sharing its most sophisticated airplane electronics, including some
of the same technology used in Boeing’s new state-of-the-art 787
Dreamliner.

For G.E., the pact is a chance to build upon an already
well-established business in China, where the company has booming
sales of jet engines, mainly to Chinese airlines that are now buying
Boeing and Airbus planes. But doing business in China often requires
Western multinationals like G.E. to share technology and trade
secrets that might eventually enable Chinese companies to beat them
at their own game — by making the same products cheaper, if not
better.

The other risk is that Western technologies could help China play
catch-up in military aviation — a concern underscored last week when
the Chinese military demonstrated a prototype of its version of the
Pentagon’s stealth fighter, even though the plane could be a decade
away from production.

The first customer for the G.E. joint venture will be the Chinese
company building a new airliner, the C919, that is meant to be
China’s first entry in competition with Boeing and Airbus.

For the most part, Western aviation executives say the Chinese are
simply too far behind in both civilian and military airplane
technology to cause any real fears anytime soon — although it does
put pressure on Boeing and Airbus to continue to innovate and stay
technologically ahead of China.

G.E., which said it had briefed the commerce, defense and state
departments on details of the deal, acknowledges that pairing up with
a Chinese firm is a delicate dance. But because the commercial
aircraft market in China is expected to generate sales of more than
$400 billion over the next two decades, it is not a party the company
is willing to miss.

Eventually, G.E. executives say, China will become a potent player in
the commercial jetliner market, and the company wants to be a major
supplier to the emerging Chinese producers.

“They are committed for the long term and they have every probability
of being successful,” said John G. Rice, vice chairman of G.E. “We can
participate in that or sit on the sidelines. We’re not about sitting
on the sidelines.”

Mr. Rice also said that the Chinese joint venture partner — the
aerospace design and equipment manufacturer Aviation Industry
Corporation of China, or Avic — has supplied G.E. with some parts for
jet engines for years. And he said he had personally known Avic’s
president for a decade.

“This venture is a strategic move that we made after some thought and
consideration, with a company we know,” Mr. Rice said. “This isn’t
something we were forced into” by the Chinese government.

G.E.’s new joint venture in Shanghai will focus on avionics — the
electronics for communications, navigation, cockpit displays and
controls. G.E. will be contributing its leading-edge avionics
technology — a high-performance core computer system that operates as
the avionics brain of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner.

The joint venture has a ready customer in the C919’s builder, the
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, which is also a
government-owned enterprise. The plane will be a single-aisle
airliner, carrying up to 200 passengers, intended to compete with
Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s. Although the Chinese hope to begin
deliveries in 2016, analysts say the schedule may well slip.

With or without the C919, the Chinese market for commercial airliners
is already huge and growing fast — a big market for G.E. jet engines
and other systems, as well as Boeing and Airbus planes. But if the
C919 grabs any significant slice of that market, it would represent a
new, expanded opportunity for G.E. The company has already been chosen
to supply engines for the Chinese plane, through its long-standing
partnership with Snecma of France. Though the world’s largest
producer of jet engines, G.E. has trailed other suppliers of avionics
in overall sales, behind Honeywell, Rockwell Collins and Thales, all
of whom competed for the C919 business.

Several other American companies have also been chosen as suppliers
for the C919 aircraft, providing power generators, fuel tanks,
hydraulic controls, brakes, tires and other gear. The roster of
United States suppliers includes Rockwell Collins, Honeywell,
Hamilton Sundstrand, Parker Aerospace, Eaton Corporation and Kidde
Aerospace.

In fact, the corporate competition for contracts on the C919 became a
“frenzy,” said Mark Howes, president of Honeywell Aerospace Asia
Pacific. The Chinese government, he said, had made it clear to
Western companies that they should be “willing to share technology
and know-how.”

But the G.E. avionics joint venture, analysts say, appears to be the
deepest relationship yet and involves sharing the most confidential
technology. And G.E.’s partner, Avic, also supplies China’s military
aircraft and weapons systems.

G.E. executives would not comment on the details of the joint
venture. But a person involved in the talks said the 50-50 venture is
for 50 years. G.E., the person said, is putting in technology and
start-up capital of $200 million. Avic will initially contribute $700
million, the person said, including the cost of a new research and
development lab already under construction.

To address American government security concerns, the joint venture
in Shanghai will occupy separate offices and be equipped with
computer systems that cannot pass data to computers in Avic’s
military division, G.E. executives say. And anyone working in the
joint venture must wait two years before they can work on military
projects at Avic, they added.

While Boeing and Airbus would probably rather not see their suppliers
help the Chinese so much, both those companies must also constantly
balance the risks and rewards of operating in China.

Boeing has subcontracted parts work to China for many years, and it
is expanding a joint venture in Tianjin that makes parts with
composite materials for several of its planes. And Airbus has built a
factory that assembles A320s in the same city.

Boeing has “opted to accept the reality of both partnering and
competing with China,” Boeing’s chief executive, W. James McNerney
Jr., said in a speech last year.

Indeed, China’s push into the commercial aircraft industry will
probably increase exports from American aviation equipment
manufacturers for years to come, according to industry analysts.
Whether China succeeds or fails, the state-owned companies will keep
investing, generating sales for the suppliers.

The real concern lies further head, according to a study of China’s
strategy included in a report published in November by a bipartisan
Congressional advisory group, the United States-China Economic and
Security Review Commission.

The group concluded that China’s huge state subsidies for its own
industry, its requirements that foreign companies provide technology
and know-how to gain access to the Chinese market, along with the
close ties between its commercial and military aviation sectors all
raise concerns and “bear watching.”

The big aviation equipment makers say that, by now, they are
experienced at grappling with matters of technology transfer in
China. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Kent L. Statler, an executive vice
president for commercial aviation at Rockwell Collins, observes that
his employees often ask whether the company is trading its future for
immediate sales in China.

“I think you’re naïve if you don’t take into account that you could
be standing up a future competitor,” Mr. Statler said. Any company in
a global business is in a race, he added, and staying ahead is the
only defense. “At the end of the day, our technologies and processes
have to continue to improve,” Mr. Statler said. “It comes down to who
can innovate faster.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 18, 2011, on
page B1 of the New York edition.


因中國的做法,興  西方的報導形式, 就可知為什麼當J20原形, 或中國有什麼科產品出來時, 西方普遍聲音是中國抄襲他們的, 偷他們的技術云云.