The Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND; Chinese: 国防科学技术工业委员会) was a civilian ministry within the State Council of the People's Republic of China, responsible for setting policy for defense procurement. It was considered as the Chinese counterpart of DARPA of the US. The ministry was formed in 1982 to centralize Chinese defense procurement and technology whose responsibility had been distributed among several agencies. In March 2008, COSTIND was merged into a new super bureaucracy called the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and renamed as the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).[1] Former COSTIND deputy director, Chen Qiufa, was named as the head of SASTIND.[2]

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the China Atomic Energy Authority was part of COSTIND.[3]

History

In the late-1990s, there was a massive reorganization of the Chinese defense industry. The main focus of this reorganization was to separate the purchasing of weaponry which became the responsibility of the General Armaments Division of the People's Liberation Army, the production and development of weaponry which became the responsibility of several different enterprises such as China Northern Industries and China Southern Industries which were state-owned but not under direct state management, and the development of policy for these industries which became the responsibility of COSTIND. Because of the massive change in COSTIND, many analysts referred to the new COSTIND and the old COSTIND.

COSTIND played an important role in the space program of China as one of its subagencies the China National Space Administration is responsible for Chinese space policy. COSTIND administered the China Engineering and Technology Information Network (CETIN), which has been described as a "one-stop shop for foreign military technology information."[4] French journalist Roger Faligot described COSTIND as an "intelligence vacuum cleaner" for collecting foreign scientific, technological, and industrial information.[5]

Universities administered by COSTIND

Enterprises administered by COSTIND

List of chairmen

  1. Chen Bin (陈彬)
  2. Ding Henggao (丁衡高)
  3. Cao Gangchuan: 1996–1998
  4. Liu Jibin (刘积斌): 1998–2003
  5. Zhang Yunchuan: 2003–2007
  6. Zhang Qingwei: 2007–2008

See also

References

  1. ^ "China's National Defense in 2008". State Council of the People's Republic of China. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 15 December 2012. According to the Plan for Restructuring the State Council passed by the First Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress in 2008, the Science, Technology and Industry Commission for National Defense of the People's Republic of China has been superseded by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
  2. ^ 陈求发任辽宁省代省长 [Chen Qiufa appointed acting governor of Liaoning]. People's Daily (in Chinese). 8 May 2015.
  3. ^ China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Hannas, William C.; Mulvenon, James; Puglisi, Anna B. (14 June 2013). Chinese Industrial Espionage: Technology Acquisition and Military Modernisation. Routledge. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-135-95261-7.
  5. ^ Faligot, Roger (June 2019). Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping. Translated by Lehrer, Natasha. C. Hurst & Co. p. 247. ISBN 978-1-78738-096-7. OCLC 1104999295.

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