China’s aviation industry dates its formal founding to 1951. In the almost 70 years since then, it has undergone a massive technological transformation. While China’s leaders always envisioned an active civilian aviation industry, circumstance has dictated that, for much of its history, the aviation industry was dominated by the requirements of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Thrown into the Korean War shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the nascent aerospace industry, partnered with—and became largely reliant on— Soviet expertise, and quickly began production of fighters, bombers, and helicopters, all based on Soviet designs. Organizationally, this laid the foundations for a scientific and industrial enterprise by establishing factories and training engineers and scientists.
Aviation innovation was largely put on hold during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Once the Cultural Revolution ended, a return of official support for conventional weapons development occurred in 1977, and China began to rapidly purchase or co-develop a wide range of new aircraft types, typically with Western partners. Even the United States began four foreign military sales (FMS) programs to China, which provided an injection of U.S.-built capabilities and technology. All of which, however, were put on hold due to U.S.-China tensions after the Tiananmen Square Incident in June 1989. China was able to get relief, in some part, due to a new influx of Soviet and later, Russian aviation expertise in the early 1990s. Reinvigorated by top-level concern about the new, technologically-driven way of war on display in the early 1990s, as evidenced by the United States military in Iraq, the PLA reformed, reorganized and reduced in size, dragging bloated aerospace companies along the path to reform with it. In the early 2000s, charged with safeguarding Chinese interests abroad and enforcing territorial claims closer to home, strategic power projection became a driving force for aerospace projects.
Further emboldened by a booming economy, a more assertive and confident government embarked on an ambitious program of military modernization that would have been impossible even a few years earlier. The civilian aviation industry has also seen tremendous growth, with China’s expanding middle class driving demand for domestic and international travel. The civilian aviation industry, working in tandem with the central government, is attempting to meet domestic demand with indigenously-produced aircraft. However, the Chinese aviation industry today remains reliant on foreign technology but has demonstrated an ability to innovate and improve on foreign designs. This trend suggests truly indigenous, and potentially revolutionary innovation is on the horizon.