China’s Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense(COSTIND) said it will begin issuing licenses to qualified companies on June 15, easing decades of tight state control over weapons-making in the world’s most populous nation.
Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, reported that the new policy divides weapon creation and production into two categories. The first category of core technology and equipment will remain under the state’s thumb. The second, which is opening to new businesses, includes sub-systems and special auxiliary parts.
“If they meet certain standards, including technological level and financial strength, private and foreign-funded companies face no policy barriers in the second category,” Liu Dongkui, COSTIND’s director of the Economic Coordination Department, told Xinhua.
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