Perhaps, but the article itself says that Comac is having problems certifying its (first) commercial airliner. And part of what was targeted was Airbus data relating to certification.

I add (first) because I've read about the C919 elsewhere.

Boeing is having problems with its new planes... Designing and building airliners from scratch is not easy but China will get there because it's of strategic importance, and then the current duopoly will be broken.

But Boeing's problem isn't an innovation problem. Boeing's problem is ceding engineering decisions to marketing wanks and MBA bros.

And I did my first job programming some groce frontends for them to use the inhouse-pipeline of a major Airbus subcontractor, which they rebuil(t/d).

The subcontractor did this entirely willingly and I don't blame them, given that Airbus treated them like sh*. Sure they were not the absolute cutting edge business, but they do a solid job and have a strong engineering background (from the times of MBB, DASA & Co. - their IT in the eng department was horrible). And yet when negotiating a contract for a new test (volume of the contract similar to price of the very specialized equipment necessary), Airbus haggled and put taking it inhouse on the table (they could certainly do that, but as the history of german industry shows, this is just an intimidation tactic for mooore profit).

So the management started to sell to COMAC (basically acting as an intermediary for another not as well-connected german supplier, which also likes to sell to China but can't get around export regulations...), which is basically a sell out, but apparently we want it that way given the protection politics give those predatory bit companies around here (never hear anyone calling Airbus for fair treatment of their supply chain)

Also AFAIK: (1) There is a mandatory pilot Airbus training facility in Zhongshan, I believe for China Southern. (2) There is a Rolls Royce engine repair facility in Zhuhai. (3) Cirrus was bought by China and are establishing production in Zhuhai.

... and that's just airline related tech stuff I have passively become aware of within 50km of my office in the last 12 months.

Seems like China would have an incentive to get the other IP from Airbus's suppliers to make their own competitor.

Sure. Anyone who is in business has an incentive to get the other guy's secrets...

Unless you are truly innovating, then you don't care what the other guy is doing. Spying is only good for keeping up.

What if the other guy is also innovating? What about what they plan to do next?

Let's be honest here. Everyone has an incentive to gain insight into what everyone else is doing.

Everyone is spying on everyone else.

So do you think DEC was spying on Intel during the Alpha days? Whatever they could’ve learned wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Everyone tries to get the other guy's secrets.

I don't know a company that doesn't. How far would they go? That depends. Sometimes governments help...

your assumptions and blanket statements about everyone doing things is just wrong. Its like someone who promises anything @ 100%... you know they aren't truthful, because nothing is 100%. How would you know what info the other guy gave you isn't a fools errand rather then useful info? Counterintelligence is a thing.

Lots of companies don't pay attention to their competitors aside from just passing glances. Sometimes your competitions action is not in any way visible to you, for instance when trying to win top secret gov design contracts. When you are on the bleeding edge or the only one working on something, there is just no need. I could come up with a lot of reasons why spying is useless(not saying it doesn't have a use, just not useful in every case as you propose)... but i guess i am confident in things, rather than paranoid. Worrying about what someone else is doing is just wasting time, unless they are coming for you.

My comment is not an assumption or a blanket statement, it's the simple reality.

There is never a single company working on the bleeding edge. Those who are take a lot of precautions to keep their secrets and are keen to learn their competitors' secrets.

If you work on the cutting edge in tech just send your CV to your company's main competitor. They'll be quick to invite you for interview... To buy your competitor's product to take it apart and study it is also a time-honoured classic. These are just basic examples.

I would hope that Ken Olson was more honest than that, although I guess you never know.