Be wary of defence contractors, Chinese study warns, pointing to US system
China should take note of the way profit-seeking players in the United States have undermined its national security, researchers say
SCMP
A new study from China has warned Beijing of the danger of defence contractors having too much influence over defence policy, pointing to the profit-driven expansion of the US military-industrial complex as a salutary example.
In the study published on Monday, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s National Institute of Strategic Studies said Washington’s “iron triangle” – linking the Department of Defence, private contractors and congressional committees – had hijacked US national security policy.
Defence contractors, the military, and politicians formed a mutually reinforcing alliance where profits, expanded budgets, and political capital aligned, the study said.
“Their interests create a self-perpetuating cycle of ‘military expansion, increased revenue, mutual benefit, further expansion’ that drives armament growth independent of external security pressures,” wrote lead author Gu Jianyi, who was previously a researcher at a military institute.
“The core flaw of the US military-industrial complex is that capital profit-seeking overrides national security and public interest.”
He cautioned that lobbying, manufactured conflicts and threat perception created an inherent risk of “expanding armaments merely for profit”.
The researchers said that authorities in China should clarify the division of responsibility between the government, the military and defence contractors, establishing an operational framework based on clear roles, checks and balances, and transparency.
However, applying such lessons to China means recognising a fundamental difference in political structure.
Under the Communist Party, the PLA’s main risk has not been from the external influence of private capital, but the internal effects of institutional decay – specifically, the weakening of party authority and the fragmentation of the military-industrial apparatus into entrenched cliques, according to analysts.
Song Zhongping, a mainland military analyst and former PLA instructor, noted that the key to ensuring the health of China’s defence ecosystem was to prevent the formation of “small circles” or entrenched cliques.
“This requires establishing robust legal frameworks and stringent internal supervision mechanisms, ensuring that internal cliques and small interest groups cannot take root,” he said.
“It is also necessary to refine the legal system and close the loopholes exploited by parochial cliques and interest groups, addressing legal and institutional shortcomings to prevent new corruption,” Song said.
In their study, the Shanghai researchers also stressed the need for continued independent innovation to break technological bottlenecks and secure self-reliant supply chains, as well as the need for technology transfers in both directions between the military and civilian sectors.
This would allow China to “achieve a coordinated, mutually reinforcing relationship between defence and economic development, while firmly rejecting the flawed model of relying on conflict, expansion and arms races to drive industrial growth”, the researchers said.