China has set out a five-year plan to launch key initiatives within the space industry, maritime industry and the Internet, according to a senior Chinese military official.

"China is on its way to building itself into a maritime, space and cyber power," said Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), in a statement.

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He said that those three frontiers were "strategic fields for military competition" and "commanding grounds for boosting economic and sci-tech development." Xu said it would take the whole nation and armed forces  to achieve its goals.

China has set up business incubators for the aerospace industry in Beijing, Shanghai, Shaanxi, and Sichuan.

"China will next move to break the traditional dualistic structure that isolates the military from the civilian," Xu said, "while promoting joint construction and use of technology, talent and infrastructure."

For example, he said China will integrate unaffiliated military and civilian space infrastructure and build a unified national public aerospace network that is open to both civilian government and the armed forces.

Xu added that government officials will select several areas of strategic importance to set up innovation demonstration zones.

Integrating civilian and military resources is "an inevitable choice for China to ensure security and development while increasing wealth and building a strong army," Xu said. He cited the U.S.'s Manhattan project and Apollo program as role models for initiatives involving civilian and military workers.

"Our country is going from large to powerful and is proceeding to the center of the world stage," he said. "External pressures are becoming greater, and risks and challenges are also growing. We must improve our economic, technological and national defense capabilities at the same time, otherwise we will be large, but not powerful."

TagsChina Plans to Conquer Space, Seas, Xu Qiliang, CMC, civilian and military integration, maritime, space exploration, china space, china seas, china internet, china internet security