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

creation of MIIT. This office’s primary task is to identify
areas for civil-military convergence and to act as
intermediary for marketing dual-use opportunities. 34
Efforts to achieve integration between the military
and civilian sectors are not new, but they have never
been placed at the nexus with central decisionmaking
on the economy, industrial policy, and national innovation
directives, where central and local governments,
the military, and industry can come together to
negotiate their strategic interests. 35
On paper, this organizational restructuring looks
impressive for the task of CMI. It demonstrates that
China is serious about creating a viable institutional
environment for promoting integration. On-theground
performance and implementation is, of course,
the ultimate judge of success, and the results so far
appear mixed. SASTIND’s current director is also
deputy minister of MIIT and a former COSTIND official
is also in charge of the dual-use office. Moreover,
SASTIND remains largely in tact as an agency, with
three-quarters of its original 400 staff still employed. 36
Therefore, SASTIND’s institutional influence over the
defense industry remains formidable and, if it proves
resistant to change, could cause problems for the ministry’s
mandate. 37
Despite the creation of this super-ministry, the nation’s
industrial policy and planning remains divided.
NDRC and the State-owned Assets Supervision and
Administration Commission (SASAC), China’s stateowned
asset watchdog, as well as local governments
and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), persist in holding
the purse strings that will have a significant impact
on funding and carrying out plans under MIIT’s
diverse interest groups. For this reason, some have
suggested that China needs an even stronger, central-
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