China seeks to drive growth with civil-military integration policy

Chinese President Xi Jinping's national strategy urging government departments and military authorities to boost civil-military integration is already having a positive effect on businesses in Shaanxi Province.

President Xi Jinping has proposed integrated military and civilian development amid efforts to build a strong military. He repeated his call to further this development during his speech marking the 90th anniversary the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday.

Navi Beidou, which specializes in satellite navigation systems, is one company that has been influenced by the policy.

Wang Beibei, founder of Navi Beidou, said the combination of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System and the policy has given the company a huge shot in the arm.

"One thing is the direction of our civil-military integration -- this won't change -- to have this technology be applied firstly to the military. Second, we should integrate the Beidou Navigation Satellite System with a remote sensing satellite and a communication satellite. We should build a satellite application center, to make it more in-depth, instead of just making some surface changes," said Wang. 

The company has developed the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, which is China's version of GPS, with applications including military targeting, civilian communications and transportation, forest fire prevention and disaster forecasting.

Xi'an Sino Huaxin Measurement and Control is another company benefiting from the integration policy. It designs and develops fiber optic gyroscope products for aerospace, aviation and weapons.

The company's chief engineer Liu Changbo said new ideas are needed in developing military products.

"When we develop our civilian products, we will come up with many new ideas. These ideas are exactly what the products for military use are lacking," explained Liu. 

Qin Zhanyang, the manager of the Shaanxi Military-Civilian Merging Innovation Institute said investment will pour into civil-military development in the next five years.

"We would like all who are involved to benefit. The biggest problem in the civil-military integration policy was that there used to be a high barrier and long research and development cycle to invest in military enterprises. The rate of return was too low to reach investors' expectations. Therefore investors would not invest in military companies. Now that the country's system has been reformed, we can expect more capital investment in this industry."

The development of military technology has long been a major driving force of innovation that also leads to high-tech products in the civilian world.

Overall, experts are optimistic that the military industry can become a major catalyst for technological innovation in China and a leading force for economic growth.