China is eyeing more efficient and coordinated integration of military and civilian development as a new document aims to make the two complementary.
The document, jointly released on Thursday by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, was approved in March at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
"Our country's integrated military and civilian development has just entered a transition from initial to deep integration, and our ideas, top-level coordination and related regulations and mechanisms have lagged behind," it said, underlining the "huge potential" to be gained from such integration.
This integrated development should be based on the Party's leadership and state-level coordination and rely on the roles of the market, reform and innovation, with a focus on boosting the "coordinated, balanced and compatible" development of both economic and defense construction, it said.
According to the document, the integration of civilian and defense development will involve multiple fields and enable economic progress to provide a "greater material foundation" for defense construction, while the latter offers security guarantees for the former.
"By the year 2020, our integrated military and civilian development mechanism should become more mature and related policies should be improved, with major integration progress made in key areas," it said, citing technology, products and infrastructure that will benefit both civilians and the military.
COOPERATION & SHARING
The guideline called for building an advanced defense science, technology and industry system. Defense enterprises will be regrouped, and more non-governmental investment will be encouraged in defense industries.
Cooperation between military and civilian science and technology institutions will be strengthened, according to the guideline, which also called for cooperation between military and civilian education institutions.
An insurance system for servicemen will be built, and a sharing system for military and civilian health care resources will be improved. The military's housing system will also be reformed, according to the guideline.
The guideline called for enhancing coordination between military and civilian emergency and public security systems.
Civilian and military efforts in maritime exploration and safeguarding maritime rights should be coordinated, the guideline said, vowing to advance the strategy for building China as a maritime power.
Development of maritime operation capabilities and support facilities will be strengthened, in a bid to better help the military and civilian sectors work together to safeguard the country's territorial waters.
It also called for safeguarding the country's overseas interests, protecting the overseas rights and interests of Chinese citizens and institutions.
China will continue to actively take part in UN peacekeeping missions and deepen international military-to-military exchanges and cooperation, the guideline said.
To strengthen unified leadership and military-civilian coordination,leading organs at both national and provincial levels should be established at an early date to oversee the integrated development of the military and civilian sectors, the circular said.
Both military and civilian authorities should standardize procedures for informing each other of their needs and set up a resource-sharing platform to ensure reasonable flow and optimized allocation of military-civilian resources, according to the document.
Calling for strong capital input and policy support, the circular encouraged the military and civilian sectors to first collaborate on a series of major projects.
"(Authorities) should build several innovation demonstration zones to explore new and sustainable paths and patterns that can be popularized and replicated," it said.
