Add China's COMAC to MEU List, Lawmakers Ask BIS

The Bureau of Industry and Security should add the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), a state-owned aerospace manufacturer, to its Military End-User List, Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott said in an April 24 letter to BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez. The Republican lawmakers said COMAC works closely with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which is already included on the Entity List and MEU list and holds a minority stake in COMAC.

AVIC “maintains considerable influence” over COMAC, the senators said, adding that COMAC "actively employs" AVIC leadership, employees, technology and facilities. They also noted that COMAC is a subsidiary of China’s state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which operates multiple state-controlled defense companies and makes COMAC susceptible to China's military civil fusion (MCF) efforts.

“MCF deliberately blurs the line between the People’s Republic of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOE), private firms, universities, and research programs with its military-industrial complex,” Rubio and Scott said. “The MCF program specifically targets dual-use technologies within a variety of sectors, including China’s aerospace industry, in which COMAC plays a key role.”

They also said COMAC works “closely” with Western aerospace companies that produce jet engines and “many other components used in commercial and military aircraft.” Because of China’s “commitment to acquire dual-use aerospace technologies through trade as well as forced joint venture and partnerships, these firms, and U.S. national security by extension, are at risk.”

“Aviation experts have noted that COMAC’s ties to the military are ‘common knowledge,’” the lawmakers said, “which makes the department’s reluctance to proceed with a MEU list addition all the more perplexing.”

A BIS spokesperson didn’t comment. The Defense Department in 2021 added COMAC to its list of Chinese companies with ties to the country’s military (see 2101150006).