China’s deepening civilian, military AI ties pose challenge to US, warns think tank

Beijing, Sep 8 (PTI) China’s growing civilian defence AI ties, backed by hundreds of civilian companies and universities outside the traditional defence technology network, may pose a major challenge for the US, an American think tank warned.

The civilian institutions are playing an increasingly “consequential” role in the Chinese military’s AI-related procurement, the report released last Wednesday by the analysts at Georgetown University’s Centre for Security and Emerging Technology in Washington said.

The report gave multiple examples of these tie-ups between these institutions and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday.  The PLA’s progress in using AI technology was showcased last week when the Chinese military held its largest military parade on September 3 in Beijing, during which it displayed for the first time a range of new weapon systems, including AI-powered drones, laser weapons and missiles.

The parade was held in Beijing to mark the 80 years of China’s victory against Japan in WWII.

The civilian institutions listed by the US report included a Chengdu drone maker that sold a full combat system to the PLA, a top Beijing university commissioned to improve multi-drone coordination and targeting, and a remote-sensing and satellite navigation firm that won defence contracts for virtual drone training and a marine data visualisation project.

The report said blurring boundaries between China’s civilian and defence sectors would “pose significant challenges to US policymakers, companies, and universities.” It said that was particularly the case “as the United States navigates difficult trade-offs between preserving openness, which is key to promoting innovation, and safeguarding national security.” The analysts warned that the US could also end up being “ill-positioned to navigate the challenge of a China equipped with improving technological capabilities and a seemingly more agile defence industrial base”.

China has been pushing a strategy of “military-civil fusion” as part of ambitious goals to modernise the PLA by 2035 and have “world-class” armed forces by 2049.

According to the report, China’s military has moved beyond suppliers like state-owned enterprises and defence-affiliated research institutions – though their contributions remain substantial. It said the PLA was instead increasingly turning to hundreds of non-traditional firms and universities for AI-related military goods and services.

“China has, to some degree, succeeded in fostering competition within its historically inefficient defence sector,” the report said.

The report is based on 2,857 AI-related defence contract award notices published by the PLA between January 2023 and December 2024. PTI KJV  RD RD