GE Shares Cutting-edge Technology in Aviation Deal with ChinaAugust 26, 2011
General Electric developed a next-generation flight navigation technology that allows airplanes to take off, fly and land regardless of visibility conditions. This cutting-edge technology should provide a great advantage for America's economic future. The only problem: GE has already shared the technology with China — the United States’ largest economic, and potentially military, rival. GE passed on the technology as part of a joint venture with state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), according to an article in The Washington Post. The U.S. company's avionics will be integrated into the commercial airliner that China is building and is likely to help China become the third-largest airplane manufacturer after Boeing and Europe's Airbus. Many American companies have to put their technologies on the table when they enter into joint ventures with Chinese firms. That's often the price of accessing the world's second-largest economy. Unfortunately, too often the technology crops up in knockoffs after the American companies share their specifications, according to the article. Still, GE executives told The Washington Post they were willing to take the risk given that the Chinese airliner market will be one of the world’s largest. “We are all in and we don’t want it back,” Lorraine Bolsinger, chief executive of GE Aviation Systems, told The Washington Post. She added that the company wants to be part of building a major new aircraft regardless of where the jobs will be created. GE executives insist that they have safeguards to prevent divulging of the inner workings of their systems. But many American executives, who have cut strategic partnerships, admit that they might be risking a long-term strategic advantage for short-term gains, according the article. |
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