National Online Forum webinar on 8-9:00am pacific Wednesday, January 13, 2021
We have entered a new era of great power competition and U.S. A&D businesses must answer a key, existential strategic question that is just as big as sustainability and climate change: should they be involved in China and if so, why, how, and at what risk? This question will not be answered right away – we are only at the beginning of the inquiry; one that will face our industry for a long time. By the end of this decade, the answer could mean everything, as illustrated by the questions that we will suggest be addressed.
Please join us on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 8:00-9:00AM pacific time, when our panelists will raise and uncover some of the questions and topics US A&D companies need to consider when evaluating whether and how to do business with, in, or in competition with China. We’re not going to try and answer them all – there’s way too many and some may be the focus of future webinars. However, we’ll try to describe the lay of the land and identify some of the key issues that you should start thinking about.
The presentations will start with the big picture with Captain (Ret.) Scott Tait (Executive Director, SD Catalyst, and formerly a strategic pol-mil planner on the Joint Staff) discussing the strategic landscape; then Michael Bruno (Senior Business Editor, Aviation Week Network, who has written extensively on the US-China question for A&D companies), will talk about the general business framework, and finally David Conrad (Director Business Development, PTI Technologies, who formerly worked in China and has extensive, practical experience “on the ground”) will address some of the specifics within the aerospace industry.
Included in the questions and topics needed to be addressed, some of which we will discuss, are:
• What do you need to know to have a comprehensive view of China before you get involved?
• What is the US-China competition now, where it is going and what does that mean to US businesses?
• What are the geopolitical considerations and long-term risks that you’re may face as an industry from our national government?
• Is there business for you to have with China? Do they really need your help? Why do you want to be in China? What’s there for you?
• Is there really the business you think there is, or is China moving to become independent and make their own planes? What are the big three China airlines going to do when the C919 comes along? Are they going to take that in preference to an A320 family or the 737Max? Would you be building a new competitor in Comac?
• Do you try to make money with China or do you avoid the market all together?
• If you want to get involved with China, how do you go about doing that? Because for many Western companies China is a total foreign territory, what are all the things you got to understand and realize to do business there?
• How do you make money with China? Who’s going to buy?
• Do you need to set up a local factory and if so how do you do this?
• Do you need to set up a new office and if so, how do you do this?
• How do you deal with issues like cyber protection, IP threats, and WTO disputes?
• China and the West will highly likely form two different economic blocks, increasingly divided by lack of interoperability. How do you deal with standards and interoperability and all those other lower-level things that build to a system?
• What are Airbus and Europe doing regarding China?
• How can you anticipate, plan for, detect, and deal with a failing China?
• With a Biden Presidency, how will things be different and the same as the past?
• What is a hybrid war, do we have this now, what is the status and what could be the future?
• What does China’s End Game, winning, look like to them? What does winning look like to you?
The meeting is free for members and $25 for non-members. For more information and to register to attend the meeting go to https://adfnofjan1320.eventbrite.com.
Information about joining The A&D Forum is at https://aerospacedefenseforum.org.
This webinar is sponsored by Bolton & Company.
Leave a Reply