China’s military-civil fusion (MCF) strategy has played a key role in modernizing China’s economy and military from the Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping eras and is now being relied on even more with achieving China’s national rejuvenation of establishing a fully developed country with a world-class military by 2049. This thesis seeks to examine the underlying factors driving China’s MCF strategy. This research concluded that China’s MCF strategy was highly reinforced by China’s geostrategic security concerns, state-directed industrial policy, and foreign technology transfers. Deng’s and Hu Jintao’s relatively benign threat assessments allowed them to focus more on legacy domestic policies that made China prosperous, while Jiang Zemin and Xi, on the other hand, faced multiple security pressures, which drove them to seek dual-use technologies from the high-tech private sector for military applications. This thesis also conducted a case study on China’s artificial intelligence (AI) development strategy, which revealed that China’s AI strategy was also driven in large part by geostrategic concerns. However, an equal driving force was China’s local governments as they competed against other cities in the hopes of constructing advanced cities filled with high-tech enterprises and savvy entrepreneurs.Captain, United States Air ForceApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited
