General Electric’s business dealings with China have drawn criticism from a Republican lawmaker concerned that the company may wind up helping the Asian giant develop advanced military aircraft similar to U.S. warplanes.

 

Representative Randy Forbes (R-Virginia) has asked the Department of Defense to investigate GE’s agreement with the Chinese state-owned aviation company, AVIC, to develop next-generation commercial avionics. Although the arrangement applies only to development of civilian aircraft, Forbes says there’s nothing to stop China from using the same technology in its air force.

 

“Given [the technology’s] military origin, I am deeply concerned, once in [China], it will wind up aiding the military aviation programs of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, which is even now developing its J-20 fifth-generation fighter that appears intended to threaten U.S. air supremacy in East Asia,” wrote Forbes to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

 

GE officials have insisted that no military technology will be transferred to China under the partnership. However, as Gabe Collins and U.S. Naval War College associate professor Andrew Erickson wrote on chinasignpost.com, “Joint ventures with jet engine market leaders like General Electric (GE) have the potential to give the Chinese aerospace industry a 100 piece puzzle with 90 of the pieces already assembled. Enough is left out so that the exporting companies can comply with the letter of the export control laws, but in reality, a rising military power is potentially being given relatively low-cost recipes for building the jet engines needed to power key military power projection platforms including tankers, AWACS, maritime patrol aircraft, transport aircraft, and potentially, subsonic bombers armed with standoff weapons systems.”

 

Earlier this year, AVIC bought Minnesota-based Cirrus Aircraft, which specializes in small planes.

 

The CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, is the chairman of Barack Obama’s President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The president of AVIC, Lin Zuoming, is an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Lawmaker Seeks Probe into GE’s China Ties (by John Reed, Military.com)

A Chinese “Heart” for Large Civilian and Military Aircraft: Strategic and Commercial Implications of China’s Campaign to Develop High-Bypass Turbofan Jet Engines (by Gabe Collins and Andrew Erickson, China SignPost)