Fortifying China - by Tai Ming Cheung

About the Book

Fortifying China explores the titanic struggle to turn China into an aspiring world-class military technological power.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"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

"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

"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

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.