Although largely symbolic, a possible rebranding ahead of China's main air show in Zhuhai next month signals Beijing's growing intention to present itself as a full-scale alternative to Western plane giants Airbus and Boeing. An ARJ21 plane was photographed with "C909" painted on its blue tail at Shanghai Pudong airport on Sunday by two users of plane-spotting website jetphotos.com and one user of planespotters.net, and other images of it appeared on Chinese social media site Weibo on Monday. COMAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.