Opinion | How emerging technologies are driving China’s readiness for modern warfare

In this year’s annual session of the National People’s Congress, Premier Li Keqiang presented a finance report with an estimated 1.45 trillion yuan (US$230 billion) set aside for defence spending in 2022.

Although that figure is an increase on last year, it is still less than the US military budget, which is expected to top US$770 billion. This translates into a significant gap in US and Chinese military power. As a result, China’s military modernisation and efforts to leverage technology in warfare have so far been directed to reduce this gap.

Thus, Beijing is working to incorporate modern technology into the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). With the development of space and electronic warfare capabilities over the past two decades, China’s armed forces have started to embrace critical and emerging technologies.

This led to the creation of the Strategic Support Force, a branch of the PLA dedicated to cyber warfare, electronic warfare and using other technology for military operations.

Shashoujian refers to the Chinese strategic concept focused on creating “assassin’s mace” or “silver bullet” technologies that can reduce the gap between US and Chinese military power. These efforts have manifested themselves in policies, directions and plans that push for the development of dual-use technologies.