Of the 863 operating civil planes in China by November 2005, 534 are from Boeing company of the United States, a Chinese civil aviation official said Tuesday in Beijing.

"Calculated according to the catalogue price, China has spent nearly 40 billion U.S. dollars on purchasing planes from the United States," said Li Jiaxiang, president of the China National Aviation Holding Company, at the China-US Business Forum.

He acknowledged that the growth of China's civil aviation industry has contributed tremendously to the development of Sino-US economic and trade relations.

"The greatest beneficiary is the US plane manufacturing business," said Li.

Source: Xinhua