Xi urges integrated military and civilian development

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday underscored centralized and unified leadership to boost integrated military and civilian development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the first plenary meeting of the central commission for integrated military and civilian development, which he heads.

Upgraded as a national strategy, integrated military and civilian development is a major achievement of China's long-term exploration of coordinated development of economic and national defense construction, Xi said.

It is also a major decision concerning national development and overall security, and a major measure to deal with complicated security threats and gain national strategic advantages, Xi said.

Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, who are all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and also deputy heads of the commission, also attended the meeting.

Working rules and recent tasks of the commission, as well as a guideline on setting up local leading and working organs for integrated military and civilian development, were adopted at the meeting.

The military and civilian integration must be based on the situation of the country, Xi said, noting the integration process must bear distinctive Chinese characteristics.

"The ideas, decisions and plans of military and civilian integration must be fully implemented in all fields of national economic and defense construction and in the whole processes," Xi said.

The integration should value national socialist advantage of pooling resources to solve major problems and raising working efficiency, Xi said.

The integration must combine state guidance with the market's role, and comprehensively employ institutional innovation, policy support and legal guarantee to give full play to military and civilian integration, he said.

Xi also noted that the ultimate approach to deepening military and civilian integration lies in reform and innovation, calling for pilot schemes and exemplary models to explore new ways, and expand new space for military and civilian integration.

He also highlighted the proper use of the law in guiding and protecting the integrating procedure and called for improvement in market entry to encourage a larger number of competent enterprises, staff, technology and capital to play a role.

On deepening integrated military and civilian development, Xi called for focusing on key areas such as infrastructure, national defense-related sci-tech industry, weapon and equipment procurement, talent cultivation, socialization of the support system for the military, as well as the mobilization for national defense.

Ideas and requirements of integrated military and civilian development should be implemented in the fields of sea, outer space, cyber space, biology and new energy, Xi said.