AVIATION INDUSTRY
China is advancing its domestic aviation industry through two major state-owned aircraft corporations, the China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). AVIC designs and produces China’s military aircraft, including the J-20 fifth-generation fighter, the Y-20 heavy transport, and the future H-20 flying wing stealth bomber. COMAC produces large passenger aircraft and has begun to export the ARJ21 regional jet to Indonesia, in line with its efforts to expand into the international commercial airliner market. COMAC has also delivered its first narrow-body C919 airliner to China Eastern Airlines, but cooperation with Russia on the wide-body CR929 may be stalled because of the effects of Western sanctions on Russia.
China’s decades-long effort to improve domestic aircraft engine production is starting to produce results, with the J-10 and J-20 fighters beginning to switch to domestically produced WS-10 engines, although some Russian AL-31F engines may remain in use. China’s first domestically produced high-bypass turbofan, the WS-20, has also entered flight-testing on the Y-20 heavy transport aircraft and probably has begun to replace previously imported Russian engines. UAV development has also proceeded rapidly with new flight tests of experimental craft such as the Y5U transport UAV. China’s military aviation industry has continued to export UAVs abroad, including its sale of nine armed drones to the Democratic Republic of Congo this year.
DRIVE TO DOMINATE EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
China seeks to be an innovation superpower that is largely non-reliant on foreign technology and serves as a global center for high-tech industries. The goal of attaining self-sufficiency in key S&T sectors—a theme of PRC state plans going back decades—was recently reiterated in the 14th Five-Year Plan. As part of this self-sufficiency drive, Beijing has mobilized its bureaucracies to rapidly develop the country’s capacity for domestic innovation. Published in 2006, the National Medium-and-Long-Term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology (2006-2020) was a landmark policy that formalized China’s push for domestic innovation while also calling for the assimilation and “re-innovation” of advanced foreign technologies. In 2015, with the Made in China 2025 plan, Beijing sharpened its emphasis on technological independence by establishing import substitution quotas across a range of core technologies. The plan also called for the reform of state-owned enterprises, the establishment of regional innovation centers, and the leveraging of private sector capabilities in order to leapfrog foreign technological competitors and create a superior innovation ecosystem.
China is particularly focused on dominating a range of emerging, dual-use technologies that promise to be both disruptive and foundational for future economies. In its 14th Five-Year Plan, China prioritized the advancement of next-generation artificial intelligence, quantum information, brain science and biotechnology, semiconductors, and deep space, deep sea, and polar-related technologies. Beijing has a clear understanding of its remaining S&T deficiencies and wields
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
