Product Description

Fortifying China explores the titanic struggle to turn China into an aspiring world-class military technological power. The defense economy is leveraging the country's vibrant civilian economy and gaining access to foreign sources of technology and know-how. Drawing on extensive Chinese-language sources, Tai Ming Cheung explains that this transformation has two key dimensions. The defense economy is being reengineered to break down bureaucratic barriers and reduce the role of the state, fostering a more competitive and entrepreneurial culture to facilitate the rapid diffusion and absorption of technology and knowledge. At the same time, the civilian and defense economies are being integrated to form a dual-use technological and industrial base. In Cheung's view, the Chinese authorities believe this strategy will play a key role in supporting long-term defense modernization.

For China's neighbors and the United States, understanding China's technological, industrial, and military capabilities is critical to the formulation of economic and security policies. Fortifying China provides crucial insight into the impact of China's dual-use technology strategy. Cheung's "systems of innovation" framework considers the structure, dynamics, and performance of the defense economy from a systems-level perspective.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #664002 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From the Back Cover
"In Fortifying China, Tai Ming Cheung addresses a critically important issue in China's rise. His discussions of the defense industry and civil-military industrial base are well researched and illustrated with new fieldwork. Fortifying China mines hundreds of primary resource materials that have not been discussed in an English-language work before."-Adam Segal, Council on Foreign Relations

About the Author
Tai Ming Cheung is a Research Fellow at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and Assistant Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of China's Entrepreneurial Army. He was a China and defense correspondent for Far Eastern Economic Review for several years and has worked as a securities and political risk analyst in Hong Kong and Japan.