China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China) is developing a growing international reputation. On one hand, the exhibition has enhanced the competitiveness of China's aviation industry; on the other hand, inexpensive and high quality Chinese products have made a great impact on American and European markets, which is becoming a cause of concern to the US and to other countries.

The 10th Airshow China will run from Nov. 11 to Nov. 16 in Zhuhai, Guangzhou Province. There was considerable global impact when South Korea, which has preeviously been a very enthusiastic participant in the exhibition, suddenly called off the performance of its "Black Eagle" aerobatics team because of opposition from the US.

Since 1996, Zhuhai Airshow China has built a growing international profile. It is now one of the top five aviation and aerospace events in the world. In areas such as quantity, quality, influence, the scale of media coverage, the number of foreign aerobatics performances and professional audiences, Zhuahai Airshow China has improved greatly and even become a very strong competitor to European and American airshows.

Alongside traditional participants like the Aviation Industry Corp. of South Korea, new faces including the Hong Kong Aviation Association will take part in this Airshow. 41 countries and regions, over 700 exhibitors, and 200 media agencies represented by more than 2,000 journalists will participate in this event. 45 percent of the exhibitors are foreign. These new records confirm that Airshow China is becoming more international and professional.

With the rapid development of its aviation industry, China is now threatening to break the monopoly of the US and some European countries in the global field of aviation, and take an important share in the international aviation market. This positive progress, however, is not good news for these competitors. On this occasion the US interfered with South Korea's T-50 performance, claiming that there was a "risk of information leaks". The truth is that this is a rather weak excuse - the appearance and basic framework of the T-50 are already familiar to the public. America's true motive is to try to inhibit the rapid development of Airshow China.

For a very long time, manufacturers of both civil and military aircraft equipment strongly relied on American or European aviation and aerospace events like the Paris Air Show and FarnBorough International Airshow. In the past there were many obstacles for Chinese aviation enterprises trying to display their own products overseas. Now Zhuhai Airshow China provides them with an ideal opportunity to showcase their products to the rest of the world.

With the development of Zhuhai Airshow China, more and more countries are becoming interested in Chinese aviation equipment, resulting in a squeeze on American and European products. From this standpoint, it is very apparent why the US is trying to interfere with Airshow China. 

This article is edited and translated from 《珠海航展，美国为何从中作梗？》, source: Beijing News, author: Xie Yongliang