One of the salient points of China's 13^th Five Year plan unveiled at National's People Congress was President Xi Jinping's promise that in next five years the country would invest heavily in science & technology. Beijing is planning to create a research and development unit to spearhead the modernization of its military defense technology.

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China's success in space technology over the past one decade is a clear Indication that the government is already investing in science & technology. While China's emphatic success in space technology is indeed a great source of pride, the country's military technology still has some distance to go.

Even impressive statistics that show China's military exports cannot hide the huge chasm that exists between Beijing's military technology and military technology possessed by many developed western countries.      

To make up for this yawning gap, China has taken bold step to set up a new military technology research and development agency modeled after the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which was established in 1958 after Soviet Union launched Sputnik into the space.  

According to a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Defense, a research and development committee has already been set up (known in Chinese as junweikejiwei) to meet the needs of China's ongoing military modernization.  The aim of this committee is to promote indigenous innovation in national defense, and integratet the development of military and civilian technologies, spokesperson said.    

DARPA has been responsible for almost all the innovative and ground breaking military hardware that the U.S. has made in last 5 decades. To put it simple, today if America is a militarily powerful country, then Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has played instrumental role in it.         

Needless to say, by launching its own DARPA, China is nursing the same dream that America did five decades back. The big question is will China succeed in this ambitious dream? Some experts feel that China has an advantage when it comes to acquiring advanced technology from foreign countries.              

The real challenge is can China stretch its research and development process to exploit this advantage.

TagsDARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Chinese military, Chinese Science and Technology