As chairman of the Central Military Commission, China’s president, Xi Jinping, revised regulations on scientific research relating to military equipment. The new rules will come into force on 1 March 2025.
The Ministry of National Defence (MND) did not provide any definitive details other than to say that the stipulations comprise 49 articles in eight chapters.
Although the MND does describe the changes, intimating that “the regulations set rules for the quality control, cost management, acceptance procedures, support measures, and safety and confidentiality issues.”
Tighter measures will be implemented to keep the country’s steady defence production rate going. The industrial powerhouse already maintains a competitive edge over the United States – a strategic rival eager to catch-up – in areas such as investment , …, and most notably shipbuilding.
These problems are disconcerting as American industry – labelled the “arsenal of democracy” by Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II – has fallen well behind: China has invested in military equipment five to six times faster than the US, according to the Center for Strategic and International Security (CSIS).
With “a vision”, the MND says, “that features high quality, efficiency, low costs and sustainable development…” the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Navy and Air Force may proliferate further.
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By GlobalData
MCF strategy
What has helped to propel China’s military expansion is its Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) strategy. MCF is the act of promoting – or ensuring – the coordination and integration of military and civilian industry, which is all the more important in a technological era of dual-use.
This even includes Chinese entities present in America. Last month, the US Department of Defense (DoD) blacklisted 50 new Chinese companies – including prominent technology providers, Huawei and Tencent – operating in the US that it suspects may be too close to the PLA for the US government’s liking.
However, it is worth noting that the DoD list only prohibits the US government’s engagement with these supposed Chinese military companies.
Nevertheless, MCF has lifted China’s defence industrial potential, and “it is probably even higher than its military spending and domestic defence industries suggest” CSIS observed.
US DoD undergoes a major overhaul
Xi’s decision to update these regulations comes just after US President Donald Trump, and his pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, begin to shake-up the DoD.
Simply put, they hope to deliver more capabilities more quickly. But before they do, Hegseth unveiled his first move last week to implement a sweeping overhaul of structures, decisions, and processes to align them with the America First doctrine.
Whether Beijing perceives these changes at the Pentagon to be a threat is down to speculation. However, Hegseth’s rhetoric certainly indicates plans to uproot clumsy protocols under Biden:
“Rebuilding the US military,” Hegseth said on 25 January 2025, “means reviving our defense industrial base, reforming our acquisition process, passing a financial audit, and rapidly fielding emerging technologies.”
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