China's airplane ambitions get a boost from Boeing fallout

One day after an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed, killing all 157 people on board, China's civil aviation administration issued an order to ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 airplanes.

Seven days after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the Ethiopian ambassador to China paid a visit to China's state-owned airplane manufacturer in Shanghai. He tweeted photos of himself sitting in the cockpit of the Comac C919, a new Chinese-built plane aimed to compete with Boeing's 737 Max 8 and Airbus' A320neo.

"It will not be so long that we will see them in the blue sky," the ambassador tweeted. "Even in my layman observations, I do not think they need 20 years and for sure they will not wait for 20 years."

Adamu Assefa, the Ethiopian vice consul in Shanghai, said the visit had been planned two weeks prior, before the crash happened. No airplane orders were signed that day, despite the ambassador's praise. "Ethiopian Airlines is its own company," Assefa said. "It's the company's own right to purchase either