Last week, as China dealt with the disappointment of seeing its economic growth rate dip to 7.7 percent (still more than twice the combined annual GDP growth rate of the U.S. and Europe), 180 companies from around the globe gathered in Shanghai to convince Chinese business community that private aviation can take them to the next level. The occasion was the now-annual Asian Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (ABACE) and the main takeaway was that this still largely Western-led industry is having to accept that expansion will only happen on Chinese terms and with Chinese companies having a direct stake in just about every development.

Once again the ABACE agenda was dominated by tactful discussion of the infrastructure limitations that continue to hold back business aviation in China. What's the point in owning your own jet if you can only fly it to a handful of airports? Access to airspace also continues to be challenging, with China's military still holding sway in this area. While the business aviation lobby publicly praises China's government -- who, let's face it, don't take criticism well -- privately Western executives are becoming frustrated at the slow pace of change. Many companies are several years into protracted projects to establish the joint ventures that are the only path to market entry in China. Most have little to show for their efforts as they seek to penetrate a mind-boggling business philosophy that even Confucius would have struggled to comprehend.

Of course there are notable exceptions. Late last year in Beijing, Gulfstream Aerospace opened the first business aircraft service center run by a Western manufacturer in China. Australia's Hawker Pacific operates a fast-growing independent service center at Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, which hosted the ABACE show. Cessna is making progress -- despite bureaucratic delays -- in its plans to start assembling both its Caravan turboprops and Citation XLS+ jets from Chinese factories through a partnership with government-owned China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co. Brazil's Embraer is already established with a joint venture operation at Harbin that is now producing examples of its Legacy business jet. Importantly, these homegrown versions of foreign-designed aircraft will be considered domestic products and so will avoid the Byzantine import restrictions that continue to frustrate China's new jet set. For now, Bombardier and Gulfstream continue to account for the largest group of aircraft so far delivered to Chinese customers, but Dassault is gaining ground with its Falcon family.

Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, Deer Jet, the private aviation arm of state-owned Beijing Airlines, has launched what it bills as the first fractional ownership offering. Fractional ownership pioneer NetJets is still working on its entry into the People's Republic. With hurdles to leap, such as the complex process of establishing a local aircraft operations certificate, the U.S.-based group is wisely taking a cautious approach and intends to start out with a simple charter service. Through its "TimeShare" program, DeerJet is offering China's upwardly mobile part ownership in a selection of Gulfstream G450 and G550 jets. Meanwhile, Europe-based operator VistaJet is still working on its own plans to get an operation established in China, but has yet to confirm the identity of its local partner more than a year on from signing a memorandum of understanding with Beijing Airlines, which now appears to have gone its own way.

China now has new political leadership in the shape of President and Communist Party comrade-in-chief Xi Jinping, who has cast himself in the role of the nation's top boy scout with an impassioned mission to stamp out the more venal aspect's of China's embrace of capitalism. This may or may not be good news for business aviation in China, but the government is sensibly insisting that air transport generally must only be permitted to grow at a pace that can be safely managed and, plainly, this is holding back what would otherwise be rampant growth in business aviation.

Nonetheless, April 24 saw the publication of a new report from the government-backed U.S.-China Aviation Cooperation Program that laid out detailed roadmap for improving China's air transport infrastructure. Crucially, this includes plans to open up the vast country's lower airspace in way that should eventually loosen the constraints on the operation of private aircraft. For now, most business aviation traffic is still restricted to movements in and out of China's main cities, a situation that encourages sales of larger, long-range jets and somewhat discourages sales of smaller, short-range aircraft (because where are you going to be fly them?).

The ABACE show, which is organized by the U.S. National Business Aviation Association, exceeded expectations this year, drawing almost 8,000 visitors and 34 aircraft on display. It will be back in Shanghai in 2014 (so get your visa applications in now!), and, according to NBAA's China representative Jason Liao, it will reach the scale of Europe's well-established EBACE show within three years.