China is building 100 new airports and has a quarter of a million workers in one city alone working to build airliners to compete with Boeing and Airbus.
Chinese airlines employ young, attractive flight attendants who serve hot meals on nearly every flight.
But they do not yet have honey roasted peanuts.
That was the gist of Stephen Colbert’s great interview with James Fallows on Tuesday night’s Colbert Report. Fallows is The Atlantic’s national correspondent and author of (a recent book which I am currently reading, review coming soon), China Airborne, which explores the country’s aerospace aspirations.
Colbert is no stranger to the world of aviation: He has a Virgin America plane named after him (Air Colbert). More sadly, both his father and brother were killed in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 in 1974.