Chinese president takes on new role to spearhead civilian-military tech transfer
Chinese President Xi Jinping will head up a new committee to champion integration of civilian and military investment and technology.
The Politburo announced the committee’s formation on Sunday after a meeting chaired by Xi.
The creation of the committee comes as China is expanding its military hardware aggressively and hoping to better tap into innovation, investment and production capacity in the civilian sector.
The body will coordinate and decide on major integration issues and report to the Politburo and its Standing Committee, according to Xinhua.
Military-civilian integration is one of the goals of China’s 13th five-year plan for 2016-2020.
In 2015, Central Military Commission vice-chairman Xu Qiliang called for China to develop a military-industrial complex like the one in the US to help build a modern army.
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Xu said many countries integrated civilian resources into military development, and expanding national defence could lead to tremendous economic and social benefits.
In addition to being CMC chairman, and Communist Party general secretary, Xi chairs various working groups across China’s political landscape.
He is also the chairman of the Central National Security Commission, a powerful department within the party to centralise political power on all security issues. The commission is also understood to incorporate political, military, diplomatic and financial matters.
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Another prominent post for Xi is his chairmanship of the Leading Group of Comprehensively Deepening of Reforms, the highest level working group for party and national reform.
He was named the “core” of the party’s leadership after a major party meeting in October.
The commission for military and civilian integration has two main purposes – to apply military technology to civilian use and to encourage civilian involvement in military industry.
