Why China is racing to develop its own commercial jet engine

Its reliance on Western suppliers is a vulnerability in its aviation ambitions

- Kok Yufeng Correspondent

The year 2025 was supposed to be a big one for Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac.

With more than 1,000 of its C919 passenger planes on order, the state-backed jet maker had pledged to ramp up production of the homegrown jetliner Beijing's answer to the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max.

Executives said in March 2025 that Comac would deliver up to 75 planes by the end of the year, up from an initial target of 50.

However, by September, the annual delivery target was slashed to 25, and Comac ended the year well short shipping only 13 C919 jets, according to a Bloomberg report.

The shortfall laid bare a central vulnerability in China’s commercial aviation ambitions: its reliance on Western-made aircraft engines.

An unsteady flow of aircraft parts, including engines that were subject to a two-month export ban earlier in the year, was cited as a reason for Comac’s faltering output, underscoring how exposed the programme remains to overseas suppliers.

It is also why China has, since 2016, been racing to develop its own domestic commercial jet engine to free itself of Western dependence and assert greater aerospace sovereignty.

While public updates have been scant, the CJ-1000A aircraft engine, developed by state-owned Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), is said to be on the cusp of completing airworthiness certification the regulatory approval required before an engine can be used on commercial passenger flights after more than two years of test flights.

Getting the nod from China’s civil aviation authority would pave the way for the Chinese engine, which is named after the Yangtze river - Chang Jiang in Mandarin - to be installed on the C919 plane for commercial use.

The engine would replace the Leap-ICs that power the C919s today, which are supplied by CFM International a joint venture between US manufacturer GE Aerospace and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines.