Advertisement
China’s march to military modernisation still has barriers to overcome: from US tech curbs to Beijing’s own distrust of private sector
- The country has the second biggest military budget in the world after the US, but Washington is taking a range of measures to maintain its advantage
- Analysts have pointed to factors that could slow its military development, including sanctions on Russian arms firms and restrictions on advanced US technology
Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
36
China’s military, under the command of President Xi Jinping, has faced increasing global scrutiny amid rising tensions with the United States and in other geopolitical hotspots. This, the second story in a three-part series, looks at why it still has a long road ahead of it on the road to military modernisation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has described his goal of transforming the People’s Liberation Army into a world-class military as one of the main “strategic requirements for comprehensively building a modern socialist country”.
But while it has made progress in terms of building up its stocks of advanced equipment and has more than doubled its military budget in the past decade to 1.55 trillion yuan (US$215 billion) – making it the second biggest spender on defence after the United States – a number of challenges remain.
Defence analysts said the major barriers include US restrictions on advanced technology, Ukraine-related sanctions that may disrupt Russia’s supply of key weapon components and Beijing’s own distrust of the private sector – a key driving force for innovation elsewhere.
Washington has already announced a series of measures that could hinder the PLA’s efforts to develop advanced weapons. These include export controls imposed last year that restrict China’s access to US chips and equipment used in supercomputing systems that could play a key role in developing nuclear weapons and other military technology.
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to limit investment in the Chinese semiconductor, microelectronics, quantum technology and artificial intelligence industries, which were described as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” because of their military and surveillance capabilities.
Advertisement