China has experience in most critical military technologies, but it is continually shopping for better technology, especially American high technology.
“There’s virtually no technology that they don’t have some capability in,” says one senior official. “What they are doing is upgrading, trying to make it world class.”
Advancement in rocket technology accuracy, stealth, fuel efficiency and miniaturization is likely a top priority for the Chinese.
While China can be expected to be shopping for some items off the shelf, it is more likely to seek the materials and technology to produce its own advanced systems. According to the Department of Defense’s Military Critical Technology List, China has “limited capability” in navigation, guidance and vehicle control, gravity gradiometers, integrated circuits and electronic test equipment, and metal matrix composites, carbon-carbon composites, and polymeric materials.
Useful items:
Multi-functional inertial navigation systems:
– Advanced gyroscopes
– Hemisphere resonators
– Accelerometers
– Gravity gradiometers
Advanced electronics:
– Integrated circuits
– Solid state microwave devices
– Frequency synthesizers
– Network analyzers
– Microcircuit emulators