Analysing China’s Pursuit of Self-reliance in Defence Industry

Against the backdrop of prevailing political and military challenges, the regimes in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have always underlined building defence production systems to make the country self-reliant in defence industry. The dominant idea has been to achieve the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military modernisation for fighting modern warfare. In its early days of establishment in the 1950s, the PRC lacked the necessary foundational infrastructure to advance in defence technologies and production. With crucial external assistance in defence technology, initially, from Soviet Union and then, Russia and Ukraine, China has been able to build a robust and self-reliant defence industry. Furthermore, the restructuring of ministries of defence production into defence corporation has been the main catalyst in the process of building Chinese defence industry.