Raytheon, Bell, and Boeing, among others, have business links with Chinese government-affiliated companies.
According to a Fox News Digital investigation, some of the country’s primary defense contractors have links to Beijing.
Three American defense giants, Raytheon, Bell Flight, and Boeing, continue to retain links with Chinese government-linked enterprises, while Lockheed Martin maintains economic interests in the nation.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Isaac Stone Fish, CEO and founder of China risk firm Strategy Hazards, cautioned that defense contractors’ relationships with China pose grave risks.
In terms of compliance, cyber, reputation, security, and other issues, Stone Fish said, “doing a pretty large amount of business in China affects today’s risk profile more than ever.”
This is especially true for corporations that protect the United States’ national defense and security,” he concluded. “To effectively fulfill the demands of the United States military and national security, U.S. defense contractors must better comprehend their risk exposure to China and the Chinese Communist Party.”
P&W and Collins Aerospace Systems, two Raytheon subsidiaries, have close links to China and its military.
It is estimated that two-fifths of China’s civilian helicopters are powered by P&W engines, with offices in Shanghai and Beijing. ARJ21 regional jet aircraft powered by a GEnx engine is built by China’s state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation (COMAC). China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has a tenuous relationship with COMAC.
Along with the AVIC and the Xi’an Aircraft, another business on the NS-CMIC List, Raytheon has several joint ventures with Chinese companies.
Conglomerate controlled by China’s government with connections to the People’s Liberation Army has been placed on the Treasury Department’s Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS CMIC List) and the Commerce Department’s Entity List by the Treasury and Commerce departments, respectively.
There are 15 facilities and nine joint ventures in China for Collins Aerospace Systems, Raytheon’s other subsidiary, which is doing business there.
Since the 1970s, Collins Aerospace has been displaying its commitment to China, according to its website. Over the past three decades, our firm has made considerable investments in China and forged solid corporate and personal ties.
The website claims “tight links” with the Chinese government’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), COMAC, AVIC, and the China Electronics Technology Company (CETC) (CETC).
Several Chinese corporations have military links, and CETC is one of them. AVIC subordinates Leihua Electronic Technology Research Institute and Shaanxi Aero Electric Co. and CETC subsidiary CETC Avionics, both of which are subsidiaries of Collins Aerospace Systems, have collaborative ventures with the PLA.
On the website of another contractor, Bell Textron, military-grade aircraft are offered, and the Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Center is listed as their “China Service Center.”
For customers in Greater China (including Macau, Hong Kong, and Mongolia), Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Center provides “complete maintenance, repair, and overhaul” services. Thanks to our in-country service engineers, your aircraft will always be ready to fly.
As well as having “Part 145 certificates for holistic maintenance and overhaul” from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Bell also boasts of its “readiness to perform return-to-service flights to customer-specific destinations.”
Aside from “aircraft upgrades, modifications, reconfiguration, and customization,” the company also advertises “Mission Kit Installations, e.g., Hoists, Fast Ropes, Cargo Hooks, EMS Systems, Airborne Surveillance, Auxiliary Fuel Cell Systems, Float Kit, Mission Radio, etc.” and “Aircraft Reconfigurations for Para public, Utility, Corporate, EMS, Training, and other specific missions.”
“As a U.S.-based firm, Bell does not undertake any military business in China and is dedicated to maintaining safe operations for the civilian helicopter communities in China, including corporate, energy, health, and public safety,” a representative for Bell told Fox News Digital.
Over the last century, Boeing has established itself as a significant player in the American defense industry, promoting attack helicopters and other military vehicles on its website. Boeing has also been doing business in China regularly since 1972.
As a result of its four joint ventures and three subsidiaries in China, Boeing claims that its “planes comprise more than 50 percent of all commercial jetliners operating in China” and that China “has an integral role on every current Boeing commercial airplane model—the 737, 747, 767, 777, and 787 Dreamliner” are all manufactured in the country.
“Boeing Tianjin Composites” was launched in 1999, Boeing Research & Technology China was established a decade later, and the business delivered “its 2,000th airplane to China, a 737 MAX 8 for Xiamen Airlines” in 2018.
According to the “Boeing in China” publication, “Boeing Research & Technology China commenced operations in the nation in 2009.” Several universities and governmental institutions are now involved, as are three research centers in biofuels and air traffic control technologies. Other areas of research include aviation services and cabin technology.
“No. 1 international customer of China’s commercial aircraft manufacturing business” and “1/4 of Boeing production line is delivered to Chinese customers” are other claims made by Boeing.
When it comes to business, Boeing has a long history of working with the Chinese government, including hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C. in 2015, aboard his presidential Boeing 747-400 plane, which was flown in by Boeing.
According to a company representative who talked to Fox News Digital, the Chinese military does not buy Boeing defense platforms.
According to a company representative, our commercial aircraft exports to China boost the US economy by directly supporting tens of thousands of US jobs and indirectly supporting more than 1 million American workers across our supply chain.
For more than three decades, Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky has been a prominent figure in the Chinese business community. 2015 saw the acquisition of Sikorsky by Lockheed Martin.
According to a Lockheed Martin spokesperson, China’s recent cybersecurity law, which experts have warned might expose U.S. companies’ data to Chinese authorities, would essentially only target sales receipts and other business-facing items to be turned over, not schematics and plans.
Several “Key technologies,” like as “aerospace technology,” were explicitly targeted by the CCP’s national Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) plan, the State Department warned in 2020.
China’s MCF strategy intends to use technical advancements from the private sector and academia to further the country’s military and economic growth. Despite tensions in US-China relations.
