CHINA: China’s military factories, which have shifted...

CHINA: China’s military factories, which have shifted to making motorcycles, refrigerators and cameras alongside ammunition, tanks and aircraft, are preparing for a new push into the consumer market, the China Daily said. “The massive program to shift extra capacity of defense industry to civil production is being stepped up, with priority going to mass production of automobiles, motorcycles, mini-cars and heavy-duty trucks,” the official government newspaper said. It said the government wanted a new system of combined production of both military and civilian products, rationalizing factories’ structure and preparing for “the second takeoff for the defense industry.” The shift to making goods for civilian use was a product of previous years of economic reform as the government tried to make the military more self-sufficient.