China’s Military-Civil Fusion Is Changing Form, Part 2/5: The Industrial Internet Hidden in Plain Sight

…Establish a central-local collaborative mechanism, deepen Military-Civil Fusion, and create a Development Pattern for comprehensive advancement…

“Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet,” State Council, November 27, 2017.¹

The Industrial Internet–Military-Civil Fusion connection was not invisible. It was public, dispersed, and easy to miss.

Part One established the conceptual and strategic foundation: Military-Civil Fusion became a national development strategy at the same time the Industrial Internet was becoming a central architecture for industrial transformation. Part Two turns from concept to evidence. It begins tracing where the two timelines touched in the public record.

The connection did not appear as one clean label. It appeared in platform launches, State Council guidance, MIIT implementation plans, Industrial Internet security requirements, SASTIND participation, shipbuilding references, and defense industry actors entering the platform field. Each item can look separate in isolation. Read together, they form a pattern.

That is why this part is called The Industrial Internet Hidden in Plain Sight. The evidence was not always secret, but it was scattered across different bureaucratic channels and policy vocabularies. To see it, we have to follow the operating system: the networks, platforms, security systems, identifiers, pilots, work plans, and institutions through which the Industrial Internet moved from concept into implementation.

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Article Roadmap

This essay is the second part in a five-part series that examines the historical linkages between the Military-Civil Fusion Development Strategy and the buildout of the Industrial Internet in the period from 2015 to 2020.

Part One established the strategic and conceptual foundation for the series. The core takeaways are that the formally titled Military-Civil Fusion Development Strategy is not simply China’s version of civil-military integration, but a whole-of-nation effort to fuse innovation, industry, and capability across the full range of military and civilian domains. Also important, the Industrial Internet offers the operating architecture for making that ambition systemic. This foundation is essential for understanding the documentary trail in Part Two linking Military-Civil Fusion to the Industrial Internet.

Part Two turns from concept to evidence by tracing the public documentary record linking the Military-Civil Fusion Development Strategy to the Industrial Internet. The core takeaways are that Military-Civil Fusion and the Industrial Internet were interconnected in central policy guidance by late 2017. Also important, the evidence was public, but widely dispersed, so it was easy to miss. This documentary trail is essential for understanding the Part Three examination of defense industry participation in Industrial Internet platform development.

This roadmap covers Part Two only. The following list gives the four sections of Part Two:

The complete five-part series will establish a historical baseline. Once that baseline is in place, future essays will dive deeper into the 2015–2020 period and separately examine accelerating developments in technology and policy from 2021 to the present.

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1. The Military-Civil Fusion and Industrial Internet Timelines

Establish management and technical systems for Industrial Internet security assurance… in sectors with urgent security requirements like the National Defense Industry…

“Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet,” State Council, November 27, 2017.²

The connection between the Industrial Internet and Military-Civil Fusion was visible before it became easy to see: not as a single label, but as a recurring pattern.

1a. The Two Timelines Touch

The Industrial Internet–Military-Civil Fusion connection was not announced in a single document or carried by a single public label. It emerged across the machinery of implementation: platforms, pilots, standards, security requirements, coordination bodies, and defense industry regulators. From 2015 forward, the official record shows those pieces beginning to move along the same policy trail.

The first visible marker was CASICloud. On June 15, 2015, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) launched CASICloud, widely described in Chinese sources as China’s first Industrial Internet platform.³ Notably, the first Industrial Internet platform appeared inside the defense industry sector, not outside it. CASICloud initially supported CASIC’s internal “Digital Aerospace”⁴ strategy before expanding outward into public-service, regional, state-owned enterprise, and international platform functions.⁵

The next marker came in December 2016, when MIIT issued the Information and Communications Industry Development Plan (2016–2020).⁶ The plan did not present the Industrial Internet as a Military-Civil Fusion program. But it did place several important pieces inside the same planning frame. It called for accelerating Industrial Internet development, building industrial cloud and industrial big-data platforms, and supporting enterprises in innovative application demonstrations involving factory internal and external networks, interconnection, identifier resolution, IPv6, industrial cloud computing, and industrial big data.

The same plan also linked information and communications technology (ICT) to Military-Civil Fusion more broadly. It highlighted the deep development of ICT research, development, and applications across multiple Military-Civil Fusion fields and directions,⁷ and called for the military and civilian sectors to further advance the joint research, development, and application of ICT technology.⁸ In the plan’s guidance on the Internet of Things (IoT), it specifically called for comprehensive coordination across government departments, industries, regions, and the military-civil sector to establish a working framework characterized by industrial supply chain matching, regional division of labor and cooperation, resource sharing, and collaborative advancement.⁹

The 2016 plan does not describe an Industrial Internet–Military-Civil Fusion program. It shows something subtler: before the State Council’s 2017 Guiding Opinion was published, MIIT had already placed Industrial Internet pilots, industrial cloud, industrial big data, secure and controllable ICT development, and Military-Civil Fusion-related ICT and IoT coordination inside the same official planning environment.

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1b. The 2017 State Council Guidance

In November 2017, only weeks after the 19th Party Congress placed Military-Civil Fusion inside the New Era national development strategy framework, the State Council issued its Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet, establishing the opening programmatic document for China’s Industrial Internet development. The Guiding Opinion did more than elevate the Industrial Internet into national industrial policy. It explicitly connected the Industrial Internet to Military-Civil Fusion and defense industry participation.

The Guiding Opinion was organized into four parts. Part 3, titled “Main Tasks,” listed seven requirements; defense-related industries or institutions appeared in four of them, from 3.3 through 3.6. Part 4, titled “Safeguards and Support,” included six requirements; Military-Civil Fusion appeared in one, 4.2.

• Main Task 3.3 — Strengthen Industrial Support. In a call-out box highlighting “Standards Development and Experimental Verification Projects,” the “aviation and aerospace industries” were specifically cited in the areas of “Industrial Internet applications, and the development of industry application guidelines, specific technical standards, and management specifications.”¹⁰
• Main Task 3.4 — Advance Fused Applications. In a call-out box highlighting “Industrial Internet Integrated Innovation and Application Projects,” the “National Defense Industry” was specifically cited in the area of “comprehensive remote support services.”¹¹
• Main Task 3.5 — Perfect Ecosystems. In a call-out box highlighting “Demonstration of Regional Innovation Projects,” the Guiding Opinion directed “support for the deep participation of National Defense Science and Technology Industry Innovation Centers in the construction and development of the Industrial Internet.”¹²
• Main Task 3.6 — Strengthen Security Assurance. In a call-out box highlighting “Enhancement of Security Assurance Capability Projects,” the “National Defense Industry” was specifically cited as a sector with an “urgent security requirement” in this regard.¹³
• Safeguards and Support 4.2 — Foster a Favorable Market Environment | Establish a Fused Development System. The section called for establishing a central-local collaborative mechanism, “deepening Military-Civil Fusion,” and creating a “Development Pattern” for comprehensive advancement — as described in this part’s epigraph.¹⁴

These missions and projects show that central guidance did not frame the Industrial Internet as a purely civilian manufacturing upgrade. From the opening programmatic document, the Industrial Internet was broad enough to include defense industry standards, applications, innovation centers, remote support services, and security requirements. The two timelines did not simply run in parallel. By late 2017, they were already connected in State Council guidance.

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1c. From Guidance to Implementation

In June 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018–2020) which moved the 2017 State Council Guiding Opinion into implementation.¹⁵ The Action Plan specifically noted that it was formulated to implement the 2017 Guiding Opinion, thoroughly implement the Industrial Internet Innovation Development Strategy, and advance the deep fusion of the real economy and digital economy. The plan organized the buildout around networks, identifier resolution, platforms, core technologies and standards, new models and business forms, ecosystem development, security assurance, open cooperation, coordination, and policy implementation.

The Action Plan is important because the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) appeared inside the implementation machinery.¹⁶ In the plan’s “Action to Cultivate New Models and New Business Formats,” the responsible departments included MIIT, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, SASTIND, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).¹⁷ The tasks included Industrial Internet integrated innovation application pilots, large-enterprise Industrial Internet platforms and industrial apps, small and medium enterprise (SME) use of cloud software tools, resource libraries and demand pools, supply-demand matching, capability opening, crowdsourcing, crowd innovation, and cloud manufacturing.

SASTIND also appeared in the policy-implementation section of the same plan.¹⁸ That section called for building a mechanism for fused development, improving coordination, using the Industrial Internet Special Working Group, establishing interdepartmental linkage and central-local coordination, promoting cross-department and cross-regional system alignment, strengthening the Alliance of Industrial Internet and other industry organizations, and coordinating technical, standards, application R&D, investment-financing, and international exchange.

This does not mean SASTIND directed the Industrial Internet buildout. But it does show that the defense industry regulator was not outside the Industrial Internet implementation structure. It was named inside the machinery for pilots, coordination, and implementation.

The MIIT Industrial Internet Special Working Group 2018 Work Plan,¹⁹ issued concurrently with the MIIT Action Plan, made this point even more concrete. It did more than place SASTIND in the general coordination environment. In the Work Plan’s formal table structure, under the Mission Category “Cultivating New Models and New Business Formats” and the Key Focus “Integrated Innovative Applications,” SASTIND’s System Engineering Third Department, likely associated with shipbuilding,²⁰ was assigned to conduct pilot demonstrations connecting relevant systems with industrial control systems spanning the areas of intelligent production, remote service, networked collaborative manufacturing, intelligent connected products, and identifier-resolution integration.²¹

That is a critical detail. By 2018, the Industrial Internet was no longer only being planned in general terms. It was being operationalized through pilots, platforms, testbeds, enterprise cloud migration, industrial apps, SME adoption, supply-demand matching, and collaborative manufacturing — with SASTIND named inside the implementation structure and assigned a specific pilot task involving industrial control systems.

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1d. From SASTIND to Shipbuilding

The SASTIND connection did not stop there. In May 2018, SASTIND Director Zhang Kejian named the Industrial Internet as one of three technologies for raising the digitalized, networkized, and intelligentized level of defense industry manufacturing.²² The sequence is important.

By 2015, CASIC had launched China’s first Industrial Internet platform. By 2016, MIIT planning language placed Industrial Internet development, enterprise pilots, secure and controllable ICT, and Military-Civil Fusion development in the same broader policy frame. By 2017, the State Council Guiding Opinion explicitly called for deepening Military-Civil Fusion while also naming defense industry standards, applications, regional innovation, and security requirements. By 2018, the Action Plan and Work Plan moved the Industrial Internet into organized implementation, with SASTIND appearing in the responsibility structure and receiving a specific pilot-related task.

Later evidence points in the same direction. Although this series focuses on the 2015–2020 baseline, the post-2020 record shows why the early SASTIND and shipbuilding signals are important. By 2022, the Industrial Internet Special Working Group’s annual work plan had moved beyond early coordination and pilots into sectoral implementation and scale. It included “5G + Industrial Internet” applications in ship final assembly and construction, broader platform-system expansion, identifier-scale application, safety-production systems, and industrial-data infrastructure.

The direction continued. A 2023 academic paper by researchers linked to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Industrial Internet system proposed a Military-Civil Fusion Industrial Internet Service Platform. In 2025, MIIT released a guide applying the Industrial Internet across the full lifecycle of the shipbuilding industry, including both defense and civilian applications.

This is not a complete history of the Industrial Internet. It is a pattern of connection. The Industrial Internet moved from early platform experiments, to central guidance, to implementation plans, to coordination structures, to sectoral application in a defense-relevant industry. At the same time, new actors, including additional defense industry actors, were building their own Industrial Internet platforms — the subject of the later “Hundred Schools” part of the series — while MIIT initiated efforts to construct a national architecture beneath them.

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1e. Public Evidence, Dispersed Pattern

The reason this deserves attention now is that the pattern has become clearer. The evidence was not hidden. Much of it was public, but dispersed across agency statements, technical work plans, academic writing, platform case studies, sectoral implementation guides, and annual coordination documents. At the same time, explicit Military-Civil Fusion language became less visible in public documents, making the underlying architecture harder to recognize.

The pattern was hard to see because it sat between analytical categories. If analysts study Military-Civil Fusion mainly through entity lists, they miss the platform architecture. If they study the Industrial Internet mainly as manufacturing modernization, they miss the defense industry implications. If they study Digital China mainly as civilian governance and economic policy, they miss its military-civil operating potential.

1f. Look for the Operating System

The broader implication is not that every Industrial Internet project is military. That would be wrong.

My point is more precise: the Industrial Internet is part of the Digital China strategy’s operating architecture for strategic industrial transformation. In ordinary industry, it is designed to support efficiency, quality, safety, resilience, and competitiveness. In defense-relevant industry, it can provide the platform architecture for a more systemic form of Military-Civil Fusion.

That is why the next section turns to CASIC and CASICloud, where the defense industry trail becomes concrete. If the Industrial Internet was becoming an operating architecture, then the question is where defense industry actors appeared inside that architecture — and how early.

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2. Timeline: Defense Industry Role in Industrial Internet Development

The timeline shows the movement from strategy to infrastructure: Military-Civil Fusion and the Industrial Internet developed in parallel, then repeatedly intersected through official policy, implementation plans, coordination mechanisms, and sectoral applications.

The Industrial Internet timeline is important to this series, but it is not the argument by itself. I am working separately on a fuller history of China’s Industrial Internet. The purpose of the following table is narrower: to show key official actions and documents that help explain how defense industry participation became visible inside China’s Industrial Internet development.

This is not a complete history of the Industrial Internet. It is a reference point for the evidence discussed across the series. The pattern to watch is the movement from early defense industry platform experimentation, to planning alignment, to central policy elevation, to coordinated implementation, to sectoral application in defense-relevant industries.

The final entries, already named in Part Two, extend beyond the 2015–2020 baseline to show where the early pattern later became more visible in sectoral implementation. The table will be updated as new parts of the series are published.

Date	Document / Action	Issuing Body / Actor	Significance
June 2015	CASICloud formally launched	CASIC	China’s first Industrial Internet platform emerged from a major defense industry conglomerate.
December 2016	Information and Communications Industry Development Plan (2016–2020)	MIIT	Put Industrial Internet development, enterprise pilot demonstrations, secure controllable ICT, and Military-Civil Fusion-related ICT / IoT coordination inside the same planning frame.
August 2017	AVIC Work Plan for the Construction of Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Demonstration Bases	AVIC	Presented the Industrial Internet, Electronic Design Cloud, and local innovation centers as major initiatives for collaborative military-civil S&T innovation and coordinated military-civil industrial development.
November 2017	Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet	State Council	Elevated the Industrial Internet into national industrial policy and explicitly called for deepening Military-Civil Fusion. It also named defense industry standards, applications, regional innovation, and security requirements.
May 2018	Zhang Kejian, “Strive to Write a New Chapter in the Innovative Development of the National Defense, Science, and Technology Industry in the New Era”	SASTIND	Placed the Industrial Internet alongside additive manufacturing and intelligent robots as technologies for raising the digitalized, networkized, and intelligentized level of defense industry manufacturing.
June 2018	Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018–2020)	MIIT	Moved the Industrial Internet into organized implementation and listed SASTIND among responsible departments for integrated innovation application pilots and policy implementation / coordination mechanisms.
June 2018	Industrial Internet Special Working Group 2018 Work Plan	Industrial Internet Special Working Group / MIIT	Operationalized the 2018 Action Plan, supported platform and enterprise pilots, and assigned SASTIND’s System Engineering Third Department to pilots involving relevant systems and industrial control systems.
April 2020	Industrial Internet Architecture 2.0	Alliance of the Industrial Internet, under MIIT guidance	Formalized the Industrial Internet as a multi-level architecture of business, function, and implementation, including sectoral and industrial-chain applications relevant to later defense industry analysis.
April 2022	Industrial Internet Special Working Group 2022 Work Plan	Industrial Internet Special Working Group / MIIT	Showed the Industrial Internet moving from early implementation toward sectoral scale, including 5G + Industrial Internet applications in shipbuilding, platform-system expansion, identifier resolution, safety production, and industrial-data infrastructure.
June 2023	“Construction and Consideration of the Military-Civil Fusion Industrial Internet Service Platform”	Researchers linked to the MIIT Industrial Internet system	Made the Military-Civil Fusion–Industrial Internet connection explicit by proposing a service platform for military-to-civil transfer, civil-to-military participation, supply-demand matching, and full-lifecycle equipment support.
June 2025	Reference Guide on the Fused Application of the Industrial Internet in the Shipbuilding Industry	MIIT	Shows the architecture being applied across the full lifecycle of a defense-relevant industrial sector, including both defense and civilian applications.

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3. The Aircraft Carrier Strike Group for Manufacturing

In the future, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation will strive to transform CASICloud into an “aircraft carrier strike group” for the manufacturing sector in the era of the industrial internet.

Wei Yiyin, Vice General Manager, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, speaking at the Military-Civil Fusion Development Forum in Beijing on July 16, 2015.²³

A major defense industry conglomerate launched China’s first Industrial Internet platform over a decade ago, then placed it inside a Military-Civil Fusion setting. In hindsight, that was a clue.

In July 2015, at the Military-Civil Fusion Development Forum in Beijing, Wei Yiyin, vice general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, gave the platform an unusually revealing description. CASIC, he said, aimed to transform its newly launched CASICloud (航天云网), a cloud-based industrial internet platform, into “an aircraft carrier strike group for the manufacturing sector in the era of the Industrial Internet.”²⁴

The phrase was vivid, but it was not accidental. CASIC is one of China’s major defense industry conglomerates. The forum took place during the first Military-Civil Fusion themed exhibition in China’s defense science and technology industry. And the platform being described was not merely a commercial cloud service. It was an “Internet + Intelligent Manufacturing” platform designed to promote manufacturing resource sharing and capability coordination.

This moment points to something still underappreciated. The Industrial Internet was already appearing in a defense industry Military-Civil Fusion setting in 2015, before it became a mature national policy architecture. It was not yet being discussed in the later language of New Type Infrastructure, national industrial data systems, identifier resolution, or full industrial-chain digitalization. But the basic idea was already visible: build a platform capable of organizing manufacturing resources at scale.

That is what makes the CASIC phrase so striking. An aircraft carrier strike group is not a single vessel. It is a coordinated system of platforms, sensors, weapons, logistics, command, and support. By invoking that image for manufacturing, CASIC was pointing toward something larger than enterprise digitalization or ordinary cloud services. It was imagining an industrial architecture for discovering, coordinating, and mobilizing distributed manufacturing capability.

The clue was not the metaphor alone. It was the early appearance of a defense industry platform logic that later became central to China’s Industrial Internet architecture.

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4. The Industrial Internet and Defense Industry Converge — and Look Outward

The National Defense Science and Technology Industry must. . . serve the country’s diplomatic strategy and promote the industry “going global.”

SASTIND Director Xu Dazhe keynote at the Military-Civil Fusion Development Forum in Beijing, July 16, 2015.²⁵

CASICloud’s platform ambitions were not confined to domestic industrial transformation or internal defense industry coordination. It also sought international reach.

Before the Industrial Internet became a mature national policy architecture, SASTIND was already presenting China’s defense science and technology industry as a major institutional arena for Military-Civil Fusion. In July 2015, SASTIND hosted the opening ceremony of the Military-Civil Fusion Development Forum in Beijing, highlighting a Military-Civil Fusion Development Achievements Exhibition for the National Defense Science and Technology Industry.²⁶ SASTIND described it as the first Military-Civil Fusion-themed exhibition for the National Defense Science and Technology Industry, and the first time all major defense industry groups appeared together.

In his keynote address, Xu Dazhe, then vice minister of MIIT and director of SASTIND, said the National Defense Science and Technology Industry had made significant progress in advancing the Deep Development of Military-Civil Fusion. He pointed to the defense industry’s shift from a single military-product structure to a combined military-civilian product structure, faster conversion of defense S&T achievements, deeper fusion between the defense industry economy and local economies, gradual breaking down of industry barriers, and that high-quality production capacity and high-end equipment are steadily “going global.”²⁷

Looking ahead, Xu described the National Defense Science and Technology Industry as a “natural carrier” of Military-Civil Fusion and its most important sector. He emphasized fusing the sector into the nation’s “comprehensive security and defense system” and national economic system, advancing All-Factor, Multi-Domain, High-Efficiency Military-Civil Fusion, and building an advanced National Defense Science and Technology Industry System with Chinese characteristics.²⁸ In other words, the sector was being described not merely as a participant in Military-Civil Fusion, but as an institutional vehicle through which Military-Civil Fusion would operate.

This language helps clarify the institutional setting behind the CASIC “aircraft carrier strike group” quote. SASTIND was framing the defense industry not merely as a source of military technology for civilian use or as a recipient of civilian technologies for defense procurement, but as a system-level carrier for integrating science and technology, industry, defense, and economic development. In that setting, CASIC’s Industrial Internet-era manufacturing platform was not an isolated commercial experiment. It belonged to a broader defense industry effort to organize Military-Civil Fusion at the level of systems, capacity, and industrial coordination.

The forum also points to an outward-facing dimension that deserves more attention. Xu also connected the National Defense Science and Technology Industry to Made in China 2025 and Internet Plus, and repeatedly linked Military-Civil Fusion in the defense industry to the transformation of defense industry capacity and the need for the sector to “go global.” CASICloud would launch an international version later that same year. This does not mean Industrial Internet platforms were designed primarily to support Military-Civil Fusion internationally. But it does suggest they were being imagined in a broader strategic context: domestic industrial coordination, defense industry transformation, and international industrial reach.

The outward-facing question is whether Industrial Internet platforms should be understood not only as tools for domestic defense industry coordination, but also as potential enablers of the international reach of China’s defense science and technology industry. The CASICloud–Siemens signing agreement seen above visually captures the outward-facing and international dimension of China’s early Industrial Internet strategy.

The important point is not only that CASICloud appeared early. It appeared inside a defense industry system already being organized for Military-Civil Fusion, industrial transformation, and international reach. CASICloud was the most visible early example, but it was not the only form this platform logic would take.

Part Three of this series examines defense industry participation in Industrial Internet platform development.

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I use AI tools to support my editing, research, and translation process. Learn more on my AI Transparency Page.

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Footnotes

1. “营造良好市场环境。构建融合发展制度” / “…建立中央地方协同机制，深化军民融合，形成统筹推进的发展格局…” See, “Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet” (关于深化“互联网+先进制造业”发展工业互联网的指导意见), State Council, November 27, 2017. ↩︎
2. “强化安全保障” / “安全保障能力提升工程” / “国防工业等安全需求迫切的领域,” see “State Council Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet,” (国务院关于深化“互联网+先进制造业” 发展工业互联网的指导意见), State Council, November 27, 2017. ↩︎
3. “CASICloud Network Technology Development Corporation is a high-technology industrial internet enterprise controlled by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). Established on June 15, 2015, it stands as our country’s first-founded, and globally leading, industrial internet platform” (航天云网科技发展有限责任公司是中国航天科工集团有限公司控股的高科技工业互联网企业，成立于2015年6月15日，是我国成立最早、国际领先的工业互联网平台), see “Alliance of the Industrial Internet Members in Action | CASICloud: Accelerating Investment and Construction of the Industrial Internet as New Type Infrastructure to Empower the Development of the Manufacturing Sector” (AII成员在行动 | 航天云网：加快工业互联网为新型基础设施投资建设，助推制造业赋能发展), Alliance of the Industrial Internet (工业互联网产业联盟), May 12, 2020. ↩︎
4. “Digital Aerospace” (数字航天) refers to CASIC’s internal digital transformation strategy, supported by CASICloud’s Industrial Intelligence Cloud System (INDICS) and Cloud Manufacturing Support System (CMSS) platform architecture. According to an article in the November 2024 issue of Tsinghua Management Review titled “CASICloud: The Innovative Exploration of China’s Industrial Internet Pioneer” (航天云网：中国工业互联网先行者的创新探索), CASICloud initially focused on serving CASIC’s internal private network, using the group’s internal services to iterate its platform technology and accumulate industrial operation experience before releasing INDICS globally in 2017. The same article describes “Digital Aerospace” as supported by CASICloud’s “enterprise brain,” “enterprise cockpit,” cloud business and application workrooms, enterprise cloud service stations, SME service stations, and data-mining functions. ↩︎
5. See, Li Lei (李蕾) and Gu Chenguang (古晨光),  “CASICloud: The Innovative Exploration of China’s Industrial Internet Pioneer” (航天云网：中国工业互联网先行者的创新探索), Tsinghua Management Review, November 2024 (published online March 5, 2025). ↩︎
6. “Notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Issuing the Development Plan for the Information and Communications Industry (2016–2020)” (工业和信息化部关于印发信息通信行业发展规划（2016－2020年）的通知), MIIT, December 18, 2016. ↩︎
7. “信息通信技术研发和应用在军民融合多领域、多方向实现深度发展。” See, “Notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Issuing the Development Plan for the Information and Communications Industry (2016–2020)” (工业和信息化部关于印发信息通信行业发展规划（2016－2020年）的通知), MIIT, December 18, 2016. ↩︎
8. “推进信息技术的军民共同研发和使用,” See, “Notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Issuing the Development Plan for the Information and Communications Industry (2016–2020)” (工业和信息化部关于印发信息通信行业发展规划（2016－2020年）的通知), MIIT, December 18, 2016. ↩︎
9. “充分发挥物联网发展部际联席会议制度的作用，做好部门、行业、区域、军民之间的统筹协调，以及技术研发、标准制定、产业发展、应用推广、安全保障的统筹协调，形成产业链配套和区域分工合作以及资源共享、协同推进的工作格局。” See, “Notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Issuing the Development Plan for the Information and Communications Industry (2016–2020)” (工业和信息化部关于印发信息通信行业发展规划（2016－2020年）的通知), MIIT, December 18, 2016. ↩︎
10. “加强产业支撑” / “标准研制及实验验证工程” / “工业互联网应用，开发行业应用导则，特定技术标准和管理规范,” see “State Council Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet,” (国务院关于深化“互联网+先进制造业” 发展工业互联网的指导意见), State Council, November 27, 2017. ↩︎
11. “促进融合应用” / “工业互联网集成创新应用工程” / “综合保障远程服务,” see “State Council Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet,” (国务院关于深化“互联网+先进制造业” 发展工业互联网的指导意见), State Council, November 27, 2017. ↩︎
12. “完善生态体系” / “区域创新示范建设工程” / “支持国防科技工业创新中心深度参与工业互联网建设发展,” see “State Council Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet,” (国务院关于深化“互联网+先进制造业” 发展工业互联网的指导意见), State Council, November 27, 2017. ↩︎
13. “强化安全保障” / “安全保障能力提升工程” / “国防工业等安全需求迫切的领域,” see “State Council Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet,” (国务院关于深化“互联网+先进制造业” 发展工业互联网的指导意见), State Council, November 27, 2017. ↩︎
14. “营造良好市场环境。构建融合发展制度” / “…建立中央地方协同机制，深化军民融合，形成统筹推进的发展格局…” See, “Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing” to Develop the Industrial Internet” (关于深化“互联网+先进制造业”发展工业互联网的指导意见), State Council, November 27, 2017. ↩︎
15. “Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018–2020)” (工业互联网发展行动计划 2018-2020年), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工信部), Approved on May 31, 2018; Issued on June 8, 2018. ↩︎
16. The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND; 国家国防科技工业局 commonly abbreviated 国家国防科工局 or 国防科工局) is a State Council bureau administered by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at the deputy ministerial level. Its public mandate places it at the center of China’s defense science, technology, and industry system, making its presence in the Industrial Internet Special Working Group significant for understanding the program’s military-civil implications. According to the SASTIND website, “the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense is the administrative agency of the Chinese government responsible for managing the national defense science, technology, and industry sector. It is charged with organizing and coordinating major issues concerning the research, development, and production of weapons and equipment across fields such as nuclear energy, aerospace, aviation, shipbuilding, ordnance, and electronics, as well as with building core capabilities within the defense industries.” (国家国防科技工业局是中国政府负责管理国防科技工业的行政管理机关，负责核、航天、航空、船舶、兵器、电子等领域武器装备科研生产重大事项的组织协调和军工核心能力建设。)  ↩︎
17. “新模式新业态培育行动,” see, “Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018–2020)” (工业互联网发展行动计划 2018-2020年), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工信部), Approved on May 31, 2018; Issued on June 8, 2018. ↩︎
18. “推动政策落地,” see, “Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018–2020)” (工业互联网发展行动计划 2018-2020年), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工信部), Approved on May 31, 2018; Issued on June 8, 2018. ↩︎
19. “Industrial Internet Special Working Group 2018 Work Plan” (2018 工业互联网专项工作组 2018 年工作计划), MIIT, Approved May 31, 2018; Issued June 8, 2018. ↩︎
20. Notably, the predecessor organization to SASTIND, the former Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), identified its System Engineering Third Department as the Shipbuilding Industry Management Office (船舶行业管理办公室). Public information on current SASTIND department responsibilities is limited, but the retained bureaucratic structure from COSTIND makes the continued association between the System Engineering Third Department and shipbuilding very likely. ↩︎
21. “任务类别: 培育新 模式新业态; 重点工作: 集成创新应用; 在智能化生产、远程服务、网络协同制造、智能联网产品、标识解析集成等方面组织开展创新应用示范; 开展相关系统与工业控制系统互联试点。国防科工局（系统工程三司）,” see, “2018 Industrial Internet Special Working Group 2018 Work Plan” (2018 工业互联网专项工作组 2018 年工作计划), MIIT, Approved May 31, 2018; Issued June 8, 2018. ↩︎
22. “加快发展先进工业技术，加强增材制造、智能机器人、工业互联网等技术研发，提升军工制造数字化、网络化和智能化水平。” See, Zhang Kejian (张克俭), “Striving to Write a New Chapter in the Innovative Development of the National Defense, Science, and Technology Industry in the New Era” (奋力谱写新时代国防科技工业创新发展新篇章), SASTIND, May 18, 2018. Zhang named three technologies: additive manufacturing, intelligent robots, and the industrial internet. ↩︎
23. “航天科工力争将航天云网打造成为工业互联网时代制造业的“航母编队”。” See, “Military-Civil Fusion Delivers a Powerful ‘Internet+Industry’ Blow” (军民融合打出“互联网+工业”重拳), China Science Daily (中国科学报), Page Four, July 20, 2015. ↩︎
24. PRC state-run media at the time often translated 航母编队 as “aircraft carrier formation” when referring to the PLA Navy’s emerging aircraft carrier capability. Over the next decade, that usage increasingly shifted toward “aircraft carrier task group.” By 2015, the U.S. Navy had already transitioned from “aircraft carrier battle group” to “aircraft carrier strike group.” Because Wei Yiyin appears to be making an aspirational reference to U.S. naval forces, I translate the term here as “aircraft carrier strike group.” ↩︎
25. “国防科技工业要… 服务国家外交战略，推动国防科技工业“走出去”。” See, “Exhibition of Achievements in Military-Civil Fusion by National Defense Science and Technology Industry Opens” (国防科技工业军民融合发展成果展幕), SASTIND News and Propaganda Center (国防科工局新闻宣传中心), July 16, 2015. ↩︎
26. See, “Exhibition of Achievements in Military-Civil Fusion by National Defense Science and Technology Industry Opens” (国防科技工业军民融合发展成果展幕), SASTIND News and Propaganda Center (国防科工局新闻宣传中心), July 16, 2015. ↩︎
27. “工业和信息化部副部长、国家国防科技工业局局长许达哲在开幕式致辞时表示，近年来，国防科技工业多措并举，加速推进军民融合深度发展，取得了显著成效。军工行业实现了从单一军品结构向军民品复合结构的战略性转变，国防科技成果转化步伐加快，军民结合产业发展迅速，军工经济与地方经济融合不断加深；行业壁垒逐步打破，开放发展、融合发展的格局进一步显现；优质产能和高端装备稳步“走出去”，实现政治、经济、外交等多重效益；一系列政策措施陆续出台，军民融合发展的政策环境逐步优化。” See, “Exhibition of Achievements in Military-Civil Fusion by National Defense Science and Technology Industry Opens” (国防科技工业军民融合发展成果展幕), SASTIND News and Propaganda Center (国防科工局新闻宣传中心), July 16, 2015. ↩︎
28. “在谈到未来国防科技工业军民融合发展时，许达哲说，国防科技工业是天然的军民融合载体，是军民融合最重要的领域，必须坚持寓军于民的正确方向，植根国家科技和工业基础，融入国家“大安全、大防务”体系中，融入国民经济体系中，着力推进国防科技工业全要素、多领域、高效益的军民融合，加快建设中国特色先进国防科技工业体系。” See, “Exhibition of Achievements in Military-Civil Fusion by National Defense Science and Technology Industry Opens” (国防科技工业军民融合发展成果展幕), SASTIND News and Propaganda Center (国防科工局新闻宣传中心), July 16, 2015. ↩︎
29. See, Jeffrey Ding, “ChinaAI #70: CASICloud and the Industrial Internet,” ChinAI Newsletter (Substack), October 14, 2019 for a full translation of Wang Jinwang, “How many steps does it take to transfer the digitized capabilities of national-level aerospace equipment to the manufacturing industry?” (将国家级航天装备数字化能力搬到制造业，需要几步？), Leiphone (雷锋), October 08, 2019. ↩︎