The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

CMI, a sign of broader policy unity across political
and bureaucratic lines. 5 Perhaps more telling of the
central government commitment is its ability to marshal
the nation’s resources for specific CMI goals. Although
the picture is still mixed, positive trends are
surfacing. There is a great diversity of central funding
projects and supporting institutions that have varying
relevance to CMI. 6 Many small to medium projects
both inside and outside the defense industry are directly
linked to dual-use activities. While many larger,
national, projects do not carry the CMI tag, the evidence
suggests that it is emerging as an integral goal.
CMI is described as the “integrated and coordinated
development of the defense and civilian technology
economies (国防建设与经济建设协调发展).” 7
There are a number of driving forces behind CMI,
some explicit in official publications, others implicit
and suggested in nonofficial analysis. The first is economic
and one clearly spelled out in the 2008 Defense
White Paper and other documents. In short, China
may simply not be able to afford separate civilian,
commercial, and military research and development
(R&D)/productions streams. The demand on financial
resources to meet the growing needs of military
modernization—particularly in pushing the revolution
in military affairs (RMA)—are becoming apparent.
Moreover, broader access to the market through
direct investment opportunities and injection of assets
into the stock market holds huge potential for China’s
defense industry to raise capital. A second driver is
acquiring the capacity and talent to innovate in order
to meet the needs of a high-tech, networked PLA fighting
force. As the 2008 Defense White Paper describes,
with the defense research institutes and enterprises as
the backbone, basic and applied research in institutes
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