Fortifying China: The Struggle to Build a Modern Defense Economy

Fortifying China explores the titanic struggle to turn China into an aspiring world-class military technological power. The defense economy is leveraging the country's vibrant civilian economy and gaining access to foreign sources of technology and know-how. Drawing on extensive Chinese-language sources, Tai Ming Cheung explains that this transformation has two key dimensions. The defense economy is being reengineered to break down bureaucratic barriers and reduce the role of the state, fostering a more competitive and entrepreneurial culture to facilitate the rapid diffusion and absorption of technology and knowledge. At the same time, the civilian and defense economies are being integrated to form a dual-use technological and industrial base. In Cheung's view, the Chinese authorities believe this strategy will play a key role in supporting long-term defense modernization. For China's neighbors and the United States, understanding China's technological, industrial, and military capabilities is critical to the formulation of economic and security policies. Fortifying China provides crucial insight into the impact of China's dual-use technology strategy. Cheung's "systems of innovation" framework considers the structure, dynamics, and performance of the defense economy from a systems-level perspective.

Table of Contents:
1. Bridging the Civil-Military Technological Divide in the Information Age Integrating the Civilian and Defense Economies China's Enduring Quest for Wealth and Military Power The National Innovation Systems Framework Examining the Defense Economy through the NIS Prism Understanding How Defense Technological Innovation Takes Place 2. Innovation and Stagnation during the Maoist Era The Building of the Conventional and Strategic Weapons Bases The Defense Economy's Relationship with the Maoist NIS The Setup of the Conventional and Strategic Weapons Systems The Floundering of the Conventional Defense Industrial System Barriers to Conventional Weapons Innovation The Flourishing of the Strategic Weapons System The Consolidation of the Defense Economy in the Late 1970s 3. The Eclipse of the Defense Economy under Deng Xiaoping The Defense Economy and Its Relationship with the NIS in the 1980s Defense Conversion The Impact of Conversion on the Defense Economy Successes and Drawbacks of Conversion The Struggle to Overhaul the Legacy Defense Industrial Base Key Activities of the System The State of the Defense Economy by the Late 1990s 4. The Revival of the Defense Economy in the Twenty-first Century Setting the Stage for Bold Reforms The Relationship between the Defense and National Innovation Systems Reform and Consolidation Begin Key Activities of the Rejuvenated Defense Innovation System The Prospects for Catching Up and Leapfrogging 5. Building a Dual-Use Economy From Defense Conversion to Dual Use and Spin-On Defining the Yujun Yumin Dual-Use Economy Chinese Approaches to Civil-Military Integration and Spin-On Building Linkages between the Civilian and Defense Economies Harnessing Civilian High Technology Companies for Military Purposes The Geographical Landscape of Dual Use and CMI The Chinese Approach in Comparative Perspective 6. Can the Chinese Defense Economy Catch Up? The Techno-Nationalist Underpinning of the Catch-Up Approach The Debate over China's Military Technological Catching Up The Developmental Models for Catching Up Conditions for Technological Catching Up and the Case of the Space Industry Policy Challenges for the United States Appendix: Chinese Terms Appendix: Historical Official Exchange Rates between the Renminbi and U.S. Dollar, 1955-2008 Select Chinese-Language Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Tai Ming Cheung is Director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego, where he also leads the institute's Study of Technology and Innovation project. Previously, he was based in northeast Asia (Hong Kong, China, and Japan) as a journalist for the Far Eastern Economic Review and subsequently as a political and business risk consultant for a number of companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Review :
"No analyst knows China's military-industrial complex better than Tai Ming Cheung. China was plagued by various bureaucratic, technological, intellectual, and international obstacles for decades. Cheung shows how recent reforms are revitalizing the defense sector-particularly by introducing market mechanisms and dual-use civilian technologies. This is an important book on a neglected aspect of China's modernization process."-David Shambaugh, George Washington University "In Fortifying China, Tai Ming Cheung addresses a critically important issue in China's rise. His discussions of the defense industry and civil-military industrial base are well researched and illustrated with new fieldwork. Fortifying China mines hundreds of primary resource materials that have not been discussed in an English-language work before."-Adam Segal, Council on Foreign Relations "Fortifying China chronicles the protracted efforts of Chinese leaders and R&D personnel to redesign the Chinese defense industrial system in response to globalization, rapid technological change, and market-driven growth. Drawing on a wealth of heretofore underutilized primary sources, Tai Ming Cheung analyzes these issues with depth and clarity. Combining history, defense economics, and bureaucratic politics, the volume is a major contribution to the understanding of organizational innovation in China. It will be essential reading for all serious students of China's military-industrial development."-Jonathan D. Pollack, Naval War College