Reports

CSET produces evidence-driven analysis in a variety of forms, from informative graphics and translations to expert testimony and published reports. Our key areas of inquiry are the foundations of artificial intelligence — such as talent, data and computational power — as well as how AI can be used in cybersecurity and other national security settings. We also do research on the policy tools that can be used to shape AI’s development and use, and on biotechnology.

Report

China’s Military AI Wish List

Emelia Probasco, Sam Bresnick, and Cole McFaul
| February 2026

This report examines thousands of Chinese-language open-source requests for proposal (RFPs) published by the People’s Liberation Army between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2024. The RFPs the authors reviewed offer insights into the PLA’s priorities and ambitions for AI-enabled military technologies associated with C5ISRT: command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting.

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See our translation of the PRC government’s five-year (2016-2020) industrial development strategy for emerging technology.

This product is a Chinese translation of the CSET issue brief, "Chinese Public AI R&D Spending: Provisional Findings" by Ashwin Acharya and Zachary Arnold.

See our translation of Qianzhan Industry Research Institute’s business analysis of China’s AI industry. The document analyzes the current supply chain, market development and investments in China’s AI industry. It also assesses the outlook and trends for the future of the industry.

See our translation of a CPC Central Committee and PRC State Council strategy for education reform issued in July 2010. The strategy doesn’t mention emerging technologies explicitly, but does address international educational exchange and cultivation of world-class talent, which has implications for emerging technology.

See our translation of a tech transfer plan, which briefly addresses China's system for acquiring foreign technology, but the bulk of the document deals with transfers of technology within China, such as finding practical, commercially viable applications of new discoveries and putting technological advancements to work in rural areas and economically disadvantaged regions.

See our translation of a Ministry of Education plan issued in April 2018. The plan lays out objectives designed to significantly enhance China’s cadre of AI talent and its university AI curricula by 2030.

See our translation of a bill proposed in Taiwan’s parliament that provides for up to seven years in prison or a $1 million fine for leaks of sensitive technology. The bill aims to counter Chinese industrial espionage and reassure U.S. firms that they can conduct R&D in Taiwan without fear of their proprietary technology being disclosed to Chinese competitors.

Translation of Russia’s national strategy for the development of AI, released in October 2019. It sets a number of short- (to be completed by 2024) and medium-term (2030) qualitative goals designed to build Russia into a leading AI power.

See our translation of one of the most detailed local government plans for “military-civil fusion.” It provides insight into local efforts to steer the development of emerging technologies in directions that fulfill PLA requirements.

See our translation of a document issued by China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) that identifies several emerging technologies of interest to the Chinese military.