Any Chinese bids for this or another contract under discussion would be certain to meet intense political resistance and would appear to have very little chance of success given mounting U.S. concern about China's military power and long-term strategic goals, and the often-prohibitive opposition in the past to Chinese attempts to enter other strategic U.S. sectors, such as energy and telecommunications.That's the painfully obvious conclusion of the Wall Street Journal's Jeremy Page after reporting that a Chinese aerospace company wants to bid for U.S. defense contracts, including the new fleet of helicopters for the Marine One squadron. But: Let's compare the state of U.S. military aviation with the Chinese for a minute here.
In addition to bidding on U.S. defense projects, China is testing the J-20 and picking up an aircraft carrier. Granted, it's still decades behind anything the U.S. is doing. But strategic thinking involves thinking decades ahead, and the reading the tea leaves about U.S. development--yipes:
- India has decided to design it's own next gen fighter rather than taking part in our J-35 program.
- The Australians are deeply concerned about their reliance on F-18s while the J-35 is stuck in development hell.
- Some Americans are worried about the same thing.
- Including this one.
- The Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation has issues, too.