Chinese banned from Airbus A400M at Singapore Airshow

European aerospace giant Airbus, has publicly apologized, following the reports that visitors from China and Russia were barred from boarding a Luftwaffe Airbus A400M military transport aircraft during the 2024 Singapore Airshow.

Military personnel prevented several Chinese guests from boarding the German air force plane during the Public Day of the airshow, multiple complaints on social media allege.

A Chinese show visitor shared a video where the woman at the A400M entrance asked to verify his nationality as it is a German aircraft. She mentioned that Chinese and Russian nationals are prohibited from boarding the plane. The attendee also recorded German personnel allegedly pursuing him after discovering he was Chinese.

A second claimed that Germans had physically attacked him, leading him to file an official complaint with the airshow organizers, citing “discrimination against Chinese people.” Chinese visitors were reportedly allowed to board other countries’ military planes.

Airbus issued a statement acknowledging that there were concerns raised by visitors regarding access to their aircraft. They promptly communicated and coordinated with the customer and their Airbus teams at the show to ensure that the aircraft was accessible to all visitors for the duration of the event.

Airbus emphasized its commitment to pursuing mutually beneficial collaboration with the Chinese aviation industry and striving to establish channels of communication between China and Europe.

Airbus has secured a larger portion of the passenger aircraft industry in recent times, primarily because Boeing, its American competitor, has faced a series of manufacturing problems that posed potential danger. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 encountered computer malfunctions, leading to fatal accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia during 2018 and 2019. Consequently, numerous commercial planes were taken out of service for nearly two years. The substitute model, the 737 MAX 9, also faced grounding and production restrictions from US authorities following an incident where an Alaskan Airlines flight experienced an in-flight blowout last month.

Brussels and Washington have long complained about Beijing’s alleged theft and surveillance of western military technology. The US has pressured the UK and EU states to ban Huawei from their 5G infrastructure, lest the company’s equipment turn out to include backdoors feeding sensitive Western data to the Chinese government. To date, no evidence of the alleged capabilities has been made public.

The European Union and the United States of America have consistently expressed concerns regarding Beijing’s rampant theft and copying of Western military technology. The US has also urged the UK and EU countries to prohibit Huawei from being involved in their 5G infrastructure, fearing that the Chinese firm’s equipment may contain hidden access points that could enable the Chinese government to steal sensitive Western data.