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CIRA Report: China’s Defense Industry on the Path of Reform

By October 1, 2009April 29th, 2023No Comments

On October 1, 2009, the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) released CIRA’s commissioned report entitled “China’s Defense Industry on the Path of Reform.” China’s defense industry underwent a dramatic transformation over the first decade of the 21st century. Fundamental reforms in central government organization and policy, the operations of defense enterprises, and the flow of international capital revealed a new paradigm on the part of the Chinese leadership. As a result of these changes, there was a need for a fundamental reassessment of historical critiques of China’s defense industry as clogged with redundancy and inefficiency, and lacking access to capital and advanced technology.

This USCC report builds upon the findings of a 2005 RAND report entitled ‘A New Direction for China’s Defense Industry.’ This report analyzes recent reforms in China’s defense industrial base and their effectiveness, adopting the sector-by-sector approach introduced in the RAND study in order to account for significant variation across the different sectors (aviation, aerospace, nuclear, shipbuilding, electronics, and ordnance).

To read more, see: https://www.uscc.gov/research/chinas-defense-industry-path-reform