Boeing is focused on making China its number one customer for commercial airplanes.
The company forecasts that over the next 20 years, China will need 5,000 new airplanes, totaling about $600 billion.
Competition for those contracts is likely to be stiff. Not only are already established companies like Airbus, Embraer and Bombardier in the mix, new companies in Russia, China and Japan are also likely to enter the 70 to 190-seat airplane market over the next few years. Many will also probably get subsidies from their governments.
But Boeing still wants the biggest slice of pie. That's why it's been investing considerably in China, launching aerospace education programs at primary schools, all the way up to major universities.
Including its subsidiaries and joint ventures, Boeing currently has more than 6,000 employees in China. In 2011, it posted revenue of $4.8 billion in China.
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