Originally Posted by andrewp
I was in Beijing when this sale was announced. The local press (CCTV9) gave it a very positive spin so as to make it sound like the Chinese airlines only did business with Boeing.
I found it interesting that on the way to and from PEK there was a billboard for the Airbus 380.... just a graphic of the plane, the name (in english), and some Chinese text. I can't read or speak Mandarin, so I'm not sure what it said. The driver of the car couldn't speak English so he couldn't translate.
The Chinese are downplaying the airbus 380 deal because the french had to lobby the EU to drop its arms embargo. Why you say? Because China won't buy the 380 unless the embargo was dropped. Also, China wants this deal with Boeing to help with the people who complain about the US-China trade imbalance, which currently is too much in China's favor.
From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...441907,00.html
Airbus has been in lengthy negotiations with the Chinese government. An announcement of the government order was expected last year during a state visit by Jacques Chirac, the French president, but is understood to have been held up by negotiations over the European Union’s embargo on arms sales to China. Jack Straw, foreign secretary, said last week that he expected the arms embargo to be lifted within six months.