If you spend billions on developing planes, you’ll probably wind up with some planes. You might even find yourself playing a major role in aerospace. China has proven itself capable of producing regional jets, and now its aerospace industry is aiming for something larger. In advance of the Zócalo event “Will China Rule the Skies?,” several observers of the aerospace industry share their thoughts on what this portends. Given how well everything else is going for China, should Boeing be frightened? …

It’s one thing to pledge to do no evil if your business is an Internet search engine born on the pristine Stanford campus, or selling organic tea to Angelenos. It’s another if your business model is predicated on drilling into the earth to extract fossil fuels needed to keep humanity on the move, and if the drilling has to be done in some of the most pristine ecosystems on the planet, or in some of its most corrupt political jurisdictions. The oil business is messy, dangerous and brawny, requiring massive capital investments and technological prowess to extract fuel from the planet. It’s never been an industry for the mild-mannered. Still, in advance of Steve Coll’s “Does ExxonMobil Rule the World?”, a Zócalo event, we ask a number of experts whether Big Oil needs to be evil to survive. …