China Eastern: Beijing’s Latest Policy Tool 中国东方航空：中国政府的最新政治工具
China Eastern’s (HKEx: 670; Shanghai: 600115; NYSE: CEA) announcement of a massive new order for Airbus (Paris: EAD) planes last week looked suspiciously political, coming just after China and the EU resolved an aviation-related dispute. If politics were indeed a factor, which seems likely, Beijing set another unhelpful precedent by tying what should have been a purely commercial decision to non-commercial factors. By continuing to act this way, Beijing will show the world that it calls the shots for what should otherwise be big commercial decisions by Chinese companies rather than leaving those decisions to market forces. That will only give China’s opponents further fuel in their steady accusations of unfair trade by Beijing.
China Eastern’s announcement last week that it would buy 60 Airbus A320 aircraft for about $5.4 billion marked one of the biggest orders for the European aircraft maker this year. But what caught many people’s attention was the timing of the deal’s announcement, which came just after the EU and China resolved an aviation dispute that had dragged on for months. (English article)
That dispute had seen China protest an EU plan aimed at controlling greenhouse gas emissions by levying the equivalent of a new tax on airlines. Beijing had previously ordered China Eastern and the nation’s other airlines not to pay the tax, and on November 12 the EU finally agreed to suspend the plan for a year. China Eastern made no mention of the dispute in the announcement of its Airbus order, the first from a Chinese airline since the dispute began. But many suspect the timing was politically motivated, designed to show that Beijing would punish European companies by withholding business from Chinese airlines unless the EU backed down.
This kind of intervention by Beijing in commercial markets is nothing new, and has been a constant source of complaints by Westerners who frequently brand such interference as unfair. Last spring, for example, Beijing took nearly a year to approve a deal to let European telecoms equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks buy assets from Motorola, holding up the deal for months without explanation. But many suspect the delay may have been politically motivated, as the approval came just after Motorola resolved an unrelated business dispute with Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei.
This kind of repeated interference by Beijing in commercial affairs reflected by this latest China Eastern-Airbus decision needs to stop if China wants the steady stream of complaints about its meddling in business affairs to end.
China Eastern’s negotiations with Airbus for this latest plane order probably began early this year or even earlier, and the deal was most likely finalized weeks or even months before its announcement. If that was the case, China Eastern should have made its announcement as soon as the deal was reached, showing it could operate independently of Beijing’s disputes with other governments. By giving Chinese companies true independence, Beijing could finally begin to show a skeptical West that it doesn’t interfere in their commercial decision making.
Bottom line: Beijing needs to stop using big state-controlled companies like China Eastern as political tools or risk continued accusations of unfair trade from the west.
Related postings 相关文章:
