As we move further into the era of 21st century great power competition, it is important to understand with whom we are competing. This study is the first in a series of studies by the China Aerospace Studies Institute that seeks to lay the foundation for better understanding the Aerospace Sector of the People's Republic of China (PRC). This study focuses on the major actors and institutions in the aviation portion of the PRC's aerospace sector. Further case studies will examine specific programs within the sector, as well as the role of so-called 'private' or 'commercial' companies. This foundational study looks at the national-level, and the state-owned enterprises (SOE) that make up the bulk of PRC aviation.It goes without saying that the PRC's system of research, development, and acquisition (RD&A) is very different from that of the United States. As such, it is important to understand just how different it is, in order to really understand the nature of the competition. Whereas the United States largely relies on competition between commercial companies, typically large publicly traded multinationals, for R&D and production, the PRC uses all levers of Party and State power to pursue its goals. This study maps those relations, policy bodies, and centers of specialization.While this report focuses mainly on the military aspects of the aviation sector, largely because that has been the nearly exclusive focus for the PRC for decades, it is useful to remember that as the PRC attempts to build it own commercial aviation sector, that the bulk of the knowledge, funding, support, manpower, etc. will still come from these SOEs, and the many subsidiaries that they hold or manage. Indeed, it is likely that the next series of major break throughs in technology and systems integration that the PRC achieves, will be transfers of intellectual property and technical expertise from the commercial-civil sector back to the military applications, under the PRC's Military-Civil Fusion (军民融合) state policy dictate.
Dragon in the Air: Transformation of China’s Aviation Industry and Air Force is a comprehensive and multidimensional study of the air force and the emerging aviation industry in PRC. The author has made a bold effort to trace the changing character of Chinese Air Force from the time of nationalists and perspicuously hunted down the history by dividing PLAAF into three distinct periods. The first stage from 1949-1979 has been characterized by the early blues of PLAAF under Mao’s leadership. Deng then had an overbearing influence in the second stage from 1979-1993, also instrumental in initiating the process of transformation from an ancillary of PLA into an independent arm. The third stage was however the defining moment which witnessed the start of modernization of PLAAF under the leadership of Jiang Zemin. The author has very lucidly tried to explain the strong link between modernisation of PLAAF and the emergence of China’s aviation industry and therefore divided the book in two parts. While the first part of the book maintains focus on the air force and the process of modernisation; the second part dwells with the evolution of the aviation industry and the changes in the organisation structure. He has pointedly highlighted China’s increasing defence spending and growing military capabilities resulting in China developing new aerial platforms, ballistic missiles and modern firepower. As a result China is enhancing strategic power projection by building capabilities to carry out air strikes, reconnaissance and early warning and air and missile defence to put together a potent military force by the middle of this century.
First published in 2002.This volume is a political economy analysis o f China 's civil aviation industry, with a focus on the reform period beginning in the late 1970s up to the present. The chief aim is to identify and analyze the most important political economy variables impacting on the industry's development during this time.
An assessment of China's aerospace manufacturing capabilities and how China's participation in commercial markets and supply chains contributes to their improvement. It examines China's aviation and space manufacturing capabilities, government efforts to encourage foreign participation, transfers of foreign technology to China, the extent to which U.S. and foreign aerospace firms depend on supplies from China, and their implications for U.S. security interests.
This report assesses the effectiveness of China’s industrial policies, using China’s commercial aviation manufacturing industry as a case study. It evaluates China’s efforts to create a national champion in this industry, and analyzes foreign manufacturers’ efforts to protect key technologies when setting up production facilities there. It also offers policy options for foreign governments responding to Chinese policies.
China has emerged as a major regional power and has clear aspirations to be a global power in the not too distant future. Comprehensive military modernisation programs, sustained economic, scientific and technological developments have substantially elevated China’s international profile. For the past three decades, China has been modernising its strategic weaponry and enhancing the capabilities of its nuclear warheads. It has also been developing new and complex military platforms that would be of great value to joint operations warfare. The decade from 2011 through 2020 will prove critical to the PLA as it attempts to integrate many new and complex platforms, and to adopt modern operational concepts, including network-centric warfare. China’s air force is in the midst of a transformation. A decade ago, it was an antiquated service equipped almost exclusively with weapons based on 1950s-era Soviet designs and operated by personnel with questionable training according to outdated employment concepts. Today, the PLAAF appears to be on its way to becoming a modern, highly capable air force for the 21st century. The PLA Air Force has continued expanding its inventory of long-range, advanced SAM systems and now possesses one of the largest such forces in the world. The January 2011 flight test of China’s next generation fighter prototype, the J-20, highlights China’s ambition to produce a fighter aircraft that incorporates stealth attributes, advanced avionics, and super-cruise capable engines over the next several years. China is upgrading its B-6 bomber fleet with a new, longer-range variant that will be armed with a new long-range cruise missile. China’s aviation industry is developing several types of airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft. These include the KJ-200, based on the Y-8 airframe, for AWACS as well as intelligence collection and maritime surveillance, and the KJ-2000, based on a modified Russian IL-76 airframe. China can decisively defeat India in any nuclear confrontation, but is currently unable to match the IAF in any conventional conflict, specifically along the border region of the Himalayas. Also, the IAF has greater experience than PLAAF in actual combat operations with its many conflicts; India is gradually building powerful military capabilities in tune with its expanding geopolitical interests, even as the eastern and western fronts are being strengthened to deter the twin Pakistan-China threat. IAF is on the path to transform into a true aerospace power with the capability to rapidly deploy and operate at great distances. As for the two-front challenge, apart from progressively basing Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and missile squadrons in the two theatres, the plan also includes upgrading the airfields and advanced landing grounds in the sectors in order to give both defensive and offensive options. It is important for India to realise the relevance of Chinese achievements in space technologies and to critically view and analyse Chinese achievements in the area of manned space missions In order to achieve further success in the space arena, developments in cryogenic technology are important for India. These should be pursued in order to develop the capability of launching 4-5 ton satellites, which will help in achieving a greater commercial edge. Programmes like moon and mars missions, using robotic technologies, are also important in order to know more about the nature of resources, especially minerals, available on these bodies and undertaking their mining. It is also important to work towards launching satellites for India’s armed forces, which will help gain an advantage over adversaries. The book is an attempt to analyse the strategic importance of rising economic, political and military stature of China with a view to understand its regional and global implications in a new world order. As a rational actor in a chaotic world, China will defend its security interests at all costs. Besides undertaking a comprehensive modernisation of its armed forces, China is developing a series of offensive space capabilities while advocating the peaceful use of outer space. The book will be of immense value not only to the readers of the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of China, but to the strategic community across the globe since rise of China and other major Asian players including India will shape the strategic international environment in the decades to come during this century. It is hoped that the book will contribute to the understanding of the growing importance of integration of air and space and the fact that aerospace has truly become the new theatre of war and thereby establishing a new milestone in mankind’s history of warfare. The unifying space dimension will remain the single most important source for information and communication which can be used in multiple forms. Hence, China’s aerospace strategy and its implications for India assume greater military importance.
The Dragon Takes Flight: China's Aviation Policy, Achievements, and International Implications analyzes China’s journey toward the development of its C-919 large passenger aircraft. Through the use of primary sources in English and Chinese, including interviews with important players in China’s aviation industry, Levine builds on Michael Porter’s Diamond Model to explore the underlying question of whether or not China will successfully develop a competitive large passenger aircraft. The model serves as a blueprint for determining what China is doing right and what areas need to improve. This study also looks at the potential implications the success of the C-919 may have on Boeing and Airbus and the ways in which both companies might prepare to meet the challenges they face.
This report assesses Chinese investment in U.S. aviation from 2005 to 2016. It provides context in China’s demand for aviation products and aviation industrial policies, while assessing technology transfers and impact on U.S. competitiveness. Chinese investment in U.S. aviation over the past decade has primarily involved lower-technology general aviation manufacturers that do not affect U.S. competitiveness.
"As the United States continues it shift away from the Post 9-11 era toward the era of Great Power Strategic Competition, it is important to understand with whom we are competing and the manner in which they are competing with us. Too often, we view things only though our own 'lens' and forget to look at how our competitors see the world and organize within it. One of the biggest challenges that the U.S. faces today is trying to understand and dissect the military industrial base of China. The Chinese economic system, and indeed the entire structure and relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the state organs of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and their "private and commercial" sector is vastly different than our own. Following the great divesture of "PLA Inc" by General Secretary Jiang Zemin in 1998, and after gaining admittance to the World Trade Organization in 2001, the CCP sought to remake the face of their military industrial base. The CCP transferred what had previously been People's Liberation Army (PLA) companies into 'private' or 'commercial' hands. The PRC made a number of reforms to their economic system, under the leadership of the Party. And they sought to make China appear to be moving toward a "Socialist Market Economy". The truth, however, was far more opaque. Going all the way back to the days of Mao Zedong, the CCP has maintained a policy of Military-Civil Integration. Most recently, Xi Jinping has sought to strengthen and deepen this policy, which now goes by the term Military-Civil Fusion. In both cases, the military is the first and primary part. This was largely lost on American companies and administrations during the 1990s and 2000s as China "opened up" and became entrenched in the modern global market and supply chain. However, under General Secretary Xi, this program has taken on more significance, as has the importance of Party Committees within 'private' and 'commercial' companies. CASI has a forthcoming report on the Military-Civil Fusion system. While by no means an exhaustive list, and companies continue to enter and leave the market all the time, this report is part of our series in trying to better understand the overall aerospace landscape within the PRC. While the first publication in this series, Lumbering Forward, sought to describe the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) involved in PRC aerospace, this publication seeks to simply describe the 'commercial' aerospace industry of the PRC."--Forward.
This book is a political–economic analysis of China’s transformation to become a global aviation power. It aims to identify the driving forces that have shaped China’s ever-evolving international air transport policy direction and goals in the past four decades and further determines how and to what extent these driving forces have shaped China’s considerations and strategies when executing its policy goals through bilateral air services negotiations. The findings reveal that China’s international air transport policymaking has remained in the domain of the country’s aviation regulator, which has enjoyed an exclusivity to exercise its power on the air transport sector. The book argues that China’s international air transport policy direction is in alignment with the country’s overall strategic mission and its goal is set to support the country’s endeavour to realise the “China dream.” It concludes that factors at all levels interact with each other with a far-reaching impact on the country’s policy direction and goal setting; however, these factors are constrained by time and circumstances. The book is a must-read for a wide array of audiences, including, but not limited to, scholars and industry professionals who have an interest in China’s political economy, policymaking, international trade, government behaviour, corporate political activities, air transport, aviation liberalisation, and bilateral negotiations.
