Fortifying China: The Struggle to Build a Modern Defense Economy (review)

[ 174 ] asia policy Fortifying China: The Struggle to Build a Modern Defense Economy Tai Ming Cheung Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008 • 296 pp. This book examines China’s efforts to become a world-class military technological power through the organizational and technological transformation of its defense economy, and draws implications for the U.S. main argument In China’s struggles since the late 1990s to turn its military into a world-class technological power, the defense economy has leveraged the country’s vibrant civilian economy and gained access to foreign sources of technology. This transformation has two key dimensions. First, the defense economy is being reengineered to break down bureaucratic barriers and reduce the role of the state, thereby fostering a more competitive and entrepreneurial culture that facilitates the rapid diffusion and absorption of technology and knowledge. Second, the civilian and defense economies are being integrated to form a dual-use technological and industrial base. policy implications • Since the late 1980s, U.S. efforts to deny China access to state-of-the-art defense technology have impeded the country’s military modernization efforts. Despite the embargo, however, China’s defense establishment is now making rapid and sustainable progress. Washington should reconsider whether the security benefits of the U.S. embargo will eventually be outweighed by the political and strategic drawbacks of continuing to antagonize China while only marginally slowing down the technological transformation of the Chinese military. • Washington should thus encourage greater cooperation between U.S. and Chinese defense firms on civilian technological and industrial projects. • In particular, the U.S. should offer equipment and technologies to China that are less capable than what the U.S. uses or exports to its regional allies but are of a better quality than what China could obtain from Russia. Washington should allow the sale of advanced weapons systems to Asian allies in order to offset any advantages China would gain from U.S. arms procurements. ...