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

ing. These facilities are now primarily concentrated in
Xi’an and Beijing and produce both civilian and military
small satellites. 83 Many analysts believe that with
the success of these changes, further consolidation of
large satellite platforms could be next on the agenda. 84
As many experts point out, the process of public
listing has also exacted its own demands on the transparency
of the formerly closed defense industries.
For instance, industry reports and annual reports of
the defense companies that have been listed include
information on the institutes and facilities that have
been merged along with their scope of operations,
their worth, new R&D projects, total profits of military
products and how the capital raised through the stock
markets is spent. 85 Still, the information available on
the defense assets entering the market is slow to appear,
and most often, far from comprehensive, since
declared information must also pass strict criteria for
secrecy and national security.
While the process of M&As promises a degree of
change, transformation of the operation and management
of the defense corporations will likely be slow.
They are increasingly opening up to the market in
their need to raise capital. However, the trend at present
is to consolidate assets within a group corporation
and maintain a controlling share, a phenomenon that
will likely continue to increase in the future. 86 This is
the result of certain factors which reveal the limited
impact of shareholding reform on defense enterprise
operations. First of all, SASAC was mandated to ramp
up SOE privatization in 2003, including the defense
industry. 87 These assets were divided into 3 categories
which provided greater investment opportunities for
civilian SOEs, nonstate, and even private enterprises. 88
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