It is not What you Know, but who gets appointed by the President

"The Chinese have seen it as in their strategic interest to bolster these industries, which accounts in part for why they want to build national champions and challenge the dominance of Boeing and Airbus through them," Haley says. "They're not so much interested in making profits. What they're interested in is size, growing and dominating the industry. That's their goal."

Comac has made it clear that it prefers to work with  international suppliers that form joint ventures with domestic partners. Consequently, GE Aviation Systems, for example, is supplying the avionics core processing system, the on-board maintenance system and other electronics for the C919 through a joint venture with state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC). Rockwell Collins will provide the cabin core system, which allows flight attendants to control subsystems such as inflight entertainment, heating/cooling and lighting on the C919, through a joint venture with Shanghai Aero Measurement-Controlling Research Institute, a subsidiary of AVIC.

          It still all comes down to who you know not what you know.

Obama's Competitiveness Council: Good for Business, Bad for Workers

Simply put, American companies are achieving competitiveness by firing American workers and hiring foreign ones. According to its most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing as reported by the Huffington Post, GE has eliminated 34,000 U.S. jobs while adding 25,000 overseas. It now employs 36,000 more people overseas than here. GE's overseas sales as percent of its total are rising -- from 50% in 2007 to 54% in 2009. And according to this filing, GE plans to invest outside the U.S. "indefinitely."