China govt 'blocks firms buying US planes'

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says the Chinese government is preventing its domestic airlines from buying "tens of billions of dollars" of US-manufactured airplanes.

Raimondo said that China was not abiding by commitments to buy US goods it made in 2020 as part of a trade deal made with the administration of former US president Donald Trump.

"I don't know if Boeing is here... There's tens of billions of dollars of planes that Chinese airlines want to buy but the Chinese government is standing in the way," she said in a question-and-answer session after a speech in Washington DC.

"The Chinese need to play by the rules. We need to hold their feet to the fire and hold them accountable," she said.

Boeing and the Chinese embassy in Washington DC did not immediately comment.

Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun in March urged the United States to keep human rights and other disputes separate from trade relations with China.

"I am hoping we can sort of separate intellectual property, human rights and other things from trade and continue to encourage a free trade environment between these two economic juggernauts," Calhoun said at the time.

"We cannot afford to be locked out of that market."

Boeing last week raised its forecast slightly for China's aircraft demand for the next 20 years, betting on the country's quick rebound from COVID-19 and future growth in its budget airline sector and e-commerce.

Chinese airlines will need 8700 new planes through 2040, 1.2 per cent higher than its previous prediction of 8600 planes made last year.

Those would be worth $US1.47 trillion ($A2.03 trillion) based on list prices, Boeing said.

China's aviation authority, the first regulator to ground the Boeing 737 MAX following two deadly crashes, has yet to approve the return of service for the aircraft in the country.

China accounts for a quarter of Boeing's orders of all aircraft.