How China’s defence industry can learn from its rival Japan: PLA veteran
Xu Zengping, who bought an aircraft carrier for China, says private firms can boost defence manufacturing, which is being held back by bureaucracy
It is one of the biggest multibillion yuan questions in the Chinese military. Why after what some estimates has been an investment of 150 billion yuan (HK$180 billion) since 2010 has China been unable to come up with its own engine for fighter aircraft such as its carrier-based J-15?
China continues to rely on Russian engines to drive its military air fleet, a dependence one retired senior colonel calls the failure of “China’s aircraft heart disease”.
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China’s existing defence industrial chain, which is self-contained and self-enclosed, is nowhere near enough to meet President Xi Jinping’s dream of a strong military because of red tape and outdated separation of research from the production system
Xu Zengping, the People’s Liberation Army basketball star-turned-businessman, who did the deal to buy the country’s first aircraft carrier, said bureaucracy and an antiquated silo approach to military research and production was holding back the defence industry.
To progress, China must take note of post-war Japan, which rose from defeat in the second world war to develop a nimbler production system that brought commercial operations and the military together, Xu said.
“China’s existing defence industrial chain, which is self-contained and self-enclosed, is nowhere near enough to meet President Xi Jinping’s dream of a strong military because of red tape and outdated separation of research from the production system,” he said earlier this month in Beijing.
“Why has China so far still failed to produce an adequate aircraft engine, even though 150 billion yuan has been poured into the research project? It is because most of the leaders don’t have a long-term vision and don’t understand how to lay the foundations for the defence industry.”
Xu, who is a member of China’s political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said he submitted a report to the National People’s Congress during the annual two sessions this month, urging the central government to study Japan’s approach to become a real force in defence manufacturing.
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“Japan’s military industrial complex was split into smaller enterprises after the second world war, but it never lost its capacity to mass produce weapons,” Xu said, citing Mitsubishi, Kawasaki and Fuji as examples of companies that have patented technology to develop military supplies for Japan’s self-defence forces.
Japan’s military industrial complex was split into smaller enterprises after the second world war, but it never lost its capacity to mass produce weapons
Xu’s proposal has the backing of some senior military officials, including the army’s former deputy logistics head general Zhang Xinsheng, Lieutenant General Lu Dingwen, former deputy head of the Guangzhou Military Command, and Rear Admiral Su Shiliang, former deputy commander of the PLA navy.
Xu said the Chinese leadership lacked a sense of urgency about the issue, reacting with little more than words to the Pentagon’s decision to send warships and aircraft near the waters of China’s artificial islands in the contested South China Sea.
China claims most of the sea, which is believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas and through which about US$5 trillion in trade is shipped every year.
“I’m not telling a fairy tale and saying a wolf is coming,” Xu said. “The wolf has already come to China’s doorstep to challenge it.
I’m not telling a fairy tale and saying a wolf is coming. The wolf has already come to China’s doorstep to challenge it.
“China is the world’s second-largest economic power, but when dealing with territorial disputes, its foreign minister has just words to react with.
“Why? It’s because China is not ready for war. It doesn’t have a wartime arms production system.”
Xu said support for private enterprise would advance Xi’s long-term plans for military reform and shake up a Soviet-style defence industry monopolised by state-owned enterprises with their privileged access to funds.
“Many private companies have many good ideas and plans for projects, but many of them are unable to develop their businesses due to a lack of funding,” he said, with many Chinese banks unwilling to extend loans to the sector.
In the meantime, Xu said he was pursuing two military-civilian projects in Shandong and Heilongjiang.
China is the world’s second-largest economic power, but when dealing with territorial disputes, its foreign minister has just words to react with. Why? It’s because China is not ready for war
One was to develop a home-grown unmanned helicopter that could transport 150kg to an altitude of 500km with a laser gun. The other was to create a Russian amphibious aircraft that could take off on water with anywhere between six and 60 people on board, which would be realised in association with Russia’s major aircraft producer, the Sukhoi Company.
“The unmanned helicopter can drop supplies into disaster zones but can also be a bomber in wartime,” Xu said. “The amphibious aircraft can be turned into a conveyor to deploy marines.”
A Beijing-based retired senior colonel said the model for the Chinese defence industry was copied from the former Soviet Union of putting all core technologies in the hands of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
“Xu’s proposal is very good,” he said. “But so far it’s almost impossible for SOEs to share technology and orders for key military supplies with private companies.”
“It means Chinese private companies don’t have the fundamental technology, such as shipbuilding and aircraft design, to compete with SOEs.”
