4 - MCF in China

Summary

For China, military–civilian fusion is basically a new phase of the classic civil–military integration strategy of a joint government–industry–military effort to acquire, indigenize, and diffuse critical dual-use technologies deemed essential to national security and defense. That strategy has become ever more valid with the appearance of the 4IR, which further erodes the already blurring distinction between military and civilian technologies. Actually, few countries are more appreciative of the potential military impact of commercial 4IR technologies than China and it is keen to expand its efforts at MCF, particularly in such areas as AI, robotics, and so on, which are critical to the PLA’s most recent phase of modernization effort: informationisation. In 2015, President Xi Jinping made MCF a national priority, a move that was followed by various activities aimed at breaking down the administrative and political barriers between different sectors and organizations in China’s technology and industry establishments. Nevertheless, China’s efforts to harness MCF have so far been mixed.