China’s Flying Tofu Dreg C919 Airplane

The Depth Charge ^ | May 11, 2025 | Johnny Depth

[appeal2]

China’s homegrown passenger jet, the COMAC C919, was supposed to be a national triumph—a gleaming symbol of independence from Boeing and Airbus. But as the world looks on, one thing is becoming clear: this aircraft might just be the aviation equivalent of tofu dreg architecture. It looks smooth on the outside, sounds patriotic in the press release, and gives passengers a front-row seat to a grand experiment in airborne state-sponsored optimism...

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; China; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: statesponsoredbs

[appeal2]

A true threat not just to Boeing, Airbus but to the flying public. This is like giving your teenage a fifth of Jack and the keys to the Ferrari and expecting a good outcome

[kvanbrunt2]

Article link is for Deep Seek not planes.

[appeal2]

Sorry guys wrong link and i can’t update. Will post the correct article later. My bad.

[appeal2]

My bad, gave me the wrong link. Accidents happen.

[Red Badger]

AVIATION PING!..................

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Tofu dreg engineering”? It’s early Sunday morning and there it is…today’s totally obscure, hip and trendy phrase.

[Mr. Jeeves]

China still cant make decent turbofan engines - so the C919 requires Western engines and avionics. It’s just a low budget A320 clone at this point - interesting only to third world buyers. Korean Air and other major Asian airlines have already rejected it.

[quilterdebbie]

Yes, I looked it up and learned a new phrase!

[SeekAndFind]

Excellent Observation about the Chinese AI Chatbot, DeepSeek:

At its core, Deep Seek is Tofu Dreg AI. It performs best under lab conditions and fails spectacularly in the wild. Ask it about Tiananmen, it reboots. Ask it to write a joke about Xi, it explodes. Ask it for critical insight, and you get a pro-regime lullaby. That’s not AI. That’s AI with a party line. A politburo parrot with just enough code to look clever.

It’s not just the censorship—it’s the delusion. You can’t train a model to understand the world if half the world is off-limits. Deep Seek is the logical outcome of decades of intellectual airbrushing: an intelligence that can tell you how to quote Mao, but not how to reason. It’s brilliant at glorifying steel output from the 1950s. Just don’t ask it about ghost cities or youth unemployment.

[BubbaJunebug]

Just a new airframe for Spirit Airlines

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

It always comes down to engines.

[Alas Babylon!]

Wikipedia:
“Tofu-dreg project” (Chinese: 豆腐渣工程) is a phrase used in the Chinese-speaking world to describe a very poorly constructed building, sometimes called just “Tofu buildings”. The phrase was coined by Zhu Rongji, the former premier of the People’s Republic of China, on a 1998 visit to Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province to describe poorly built levees in the Yangtze River. The phrase is notably used referring to buildings that collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake disaster, and the Bangkok Audit Office skyscraper collapse initiated by aftershocks from the March 2025 Myanmar earthquake over 1000km away, which was constructed with poor construction techniques and materials.

In China, the term tofu dregs (the pieces left over after making tofu) is widely used as a metaphor for shoddy work, hence the implication that a “tofu-dreg project” is a poorly executed project.

[DUMBGRUNT]

“There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.” Sun Tzu

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks! I was too lazy to look it up. It’s been in use a long time and originated IN China!

It sums up crappy construction, doesn’t it?

[spokeshave]

China still cant make decent turbofan engines

So their mltary aircraft have Chinese made tubofans...?

So what is their servce life....or mean time between overhaul....inquiring mnds sek to know.

I guess in a full power dog fight the tubos would self destruct.

And the new USA F47 fghter can go supersonic wthout afterburners.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Looks almost like an Airbus A-320.

[Salgak]

Correct link:

https://johnnydept.substack.com/p/chinas-flying-tofu-dreg-airplane

[jerod]

Yup... It looks like pretty much every other passenger jet.

[In_Iowa_not_from]

In China, the term tofu dregs (the pieces left over after making tofu) is widely used as a metaphor for shoddy work

Sounds like the Chinese equivalent of hotdog meat...

[TheThirdRuffian]

Ghetto air.