China and the United States are closing in on a deal for as many as 500 Boeing jets. US Ambassador to China, David Purdue, told Reuters he believed the negotiations had entered their last days or weeks.

Adam Smith, a US Democratic congressman who led a bipartisan delegation of US politicians to China, said that “it has been a while since Boeing aeroplanes have been sold here in China. We would like to get that deal done." Purdue highlighted that the deal was very important to President Donald Trump.

If placed, these orders would be the largest ever for Chinese airlines, overtaking the so far largest deal from July 2022, when Chinese airlines ordered 292 A320 family aircraft, and the first one Boeing has secured in the country since 2017, while also helping diffuse trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.

In August, it was reported that China Southern Airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, and Sichuan Airlines were looking to divide up a 500-plane order from Airbus from a still-unannounced order that has been reported since June.

However, Chinese airlines rarely publicly disclose their orders and often remain unidentified as customers until the delivery of the aircraft. This means their true backlog is not publicly known.

Boeing was not immediately available for comment.