Equation
Lieutenant General
The Chinese leadership invested a huge amount of political capital into COMAC, as the core of the effort to reverse the bad image of Made in China. If they end up with a China-only product, a lot of people will find them behind the bars.
And a lot of naysayer and pessimist will be wrong as usual. The Chinese has a strong program going and will be able to keep it going, unlike Boeing and Airbus who has to sell so much planes just to make a profit because of rising cost in R&D, manufacturing, and materials. As a result they will have a very difficult time keeping up with the current pace. The China so called "bad image" problem comes from the media continuous repetitive bashing because it doesn't want to see China's Aviation industry or any industry to succeed.