Private firms can help stop Western sanctions from ‘strangling’ China’s military: general

The Chinese military must increase the private sector’s role in research to prevent Western sanctions from “strangling” the country’s efforts at defence innovation, a top official of the People’s Liberation Army has urged.Major General Zhang Zhan, political commissar of the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT), said China’s hi-tech industries were facing a “grim and complex” situation as the United States and its allies intensified their campaign to curb access to technology.“[Western] technical restrictions are becoming increasingly surgical, with the strategic focus shifting from ‘choking current operations’ to ‘strangling future growth’,” Zhang wrote in an article published on Wednesday in the official Study Times.