ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the dimensions of the current dynamics driving international aircraft production and identifies the complexities and problems that China faces as it attempts to join the market leaders. It discuses both the financial and managerial dimensions of the current strategy as well as the limitations and problems it currently poses for aerospace industry planners. The chapter focuses on the primary role of overseas direct investment (ODI) which to an extent reverses the traditional mode of analysis. It identifies the major structural changes that have occurred in the global industry which has produced fewer but very much larger operational firms whose activities are increasingly found within cross-border production networks. It reviews the potential need for a new strategic approach that needs to be developed, if China is to maximize its real potential in both the domestic and international aspects of its current policy.
