China's defense authorities have revealed a new list of army technology requiring a license to be manufactured. Over 1,000 items have been deleted from the previous list, issued ten years ago. This means these items are now available open to private research and manufacturing firms.
A vast number of items with limited combat utility now free from licensing.They include weather radars, aviation control systems and air conditioning facilities of ships.
"The optimized list of items that need licensing now includes 755 items, down from 1988 items in 2005. That's a 62 percent decrease. We have mainly kept weapons which have an impact on national strategic security, social public security and state secrets on the list," said Wang Xin, State Administration for Science, Tech. & Industry for National Defence.
The licensing system for weapons was started in 1999.
The first list released in 2000 included over 4,000 items. Each of the three lists that have followed have cut back on that number.
"It's significant in terms of further opening up our defense industry, fully utilizing high quality social resources, speeding up attracting private businesses into research and manufacturing of weapons and equipment. It's also important in promoting orderly competition and promoting divergence and deepening of the development of military and civil entities," Wang said.
A big category called common military vehicles was also removed from the list. All part of China's continued effort to build up its national defense in the most efficient manner possible.
