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

other countries closely and made the decision to follow
suit. 40
Procurement.
One critical component to the new policy initiatives
was the decision by the military to reform the
outdated procurement process and open up bidding
to the civilian sector. This was a task under the purview
of the military, and it set to work devising regulations.
41 The first and most authoritative law was
published in 2002 by the CMC. 42 Five more detailed
regulations quickly followed in its wake, released by
GAD in 2003. 43 The basic framework of the reforms is
to dramatically open up military procurement to the
civilian enterprises based on competitive bidding (see
Appendix A). 44
Along with the new regulations, a restructuring of
the procurement management system under the newly
established GAD was underway. 45 Mainly due to
legacies of China’s military command structure, GAD
is in charge of comprehensive planning of many general
use items, as well as much of procurement for the
army. 46 However, the Air Force, Second Artillery, and
Navy manage much of their own procurement, and
the General Staff Department purchases basic training
equipment. Actual implementation of procurement
can also involve COSTIND, testing centers, and regional
military commands. This is in part due to how
central military funds are disbursed. It remains based
on a quota system where once funds are allocated
to various departments, military areas, and services,
they largely make their own acquisition decisions.
Through these measures, the military was keen to
achieve two procurement reform goals. One was to
bring as many acquisition programs as possible under
493