China will make aircraft manufacturing a cornerstone of its “new strategic industry” plan, an upgrade in status that will lock in long-term government support for the nation’s fledgling rivals to Boeing and Airbus.

The move is troubling for the world’s two biggest aircraft-makers, which have already been bracing themselves for increased competition from emerging rivals. “The days of the duopoly with Airbus are over,” Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing’s civil aircraft division, said at the Paris Air Show in June.

China’s decision to place greater emphasis on aircraft development follows a bullet train crash that killed 40 people last month, undermining public trust in the country’s trains and questioning the government’s rush to build a sprawling, high-speed rail network.