On April 15 and 16, 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that China had halted or canceled all its orders of airplanes from the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing. An X post of a news report on the topic was captioned: 🚨JUST IN: China has just CANCELED all jet orders from American manufacturer Boeing to in response to President Trump hitting the country with tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods.

If the delivery stop is sustained for longer, Airbus is set to benefit. The company is forecast to deliver around 850 aircraft to Chinese operators in the next 10 years. In 2025, 136 are to be handed over to Chinese airlines, and 148 are earmarked for them in 2026. Airbus plans to deliver around 820 aircraft globally this year.

China has told its domestic airlines not to order Boeing planes or US parts. That will hurt America’s biggest exporter of manufactured goods and could damage China’s own aviation ambitions.