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Until its replacement in 1998 by the new Ministry of Information Industry, the Ministry of Electronics Industry [ MEI ] was responsible for the electronics and computer sector of the Chinese economy. With U.S. export control liberalizations and the ending of COCOM, the range of computers that can be sold in China has increased greatly. The Chinese government has declared information technology to be one of the key areas in its modernization efforts, and has been highly supportive of state-owned Chinese companies. MEI has aggressively protect Chinese companies from foreign competition by requiring localization of foreign software in China, with the work to be done by established Chinese competitors.
As head of the newly created Electronics Ministry, which the Chinese press hailed in 1992 as a major step toward modernizing China's National economy and defense, Hu Qili emphasized that electronics will serve as a pillar of industry as China accelerates its economic development. He stressed that this streamlined Ministry - - both personnel and departments have been trimmed - - should strive to keep the electronic industry's annual growth rate higher than that of the national economy; this expansion will provide advanced electronics equipment and systems to help develop other industries such as energy, transportation and communications. Arguing that military electronics are a key technology necessary for winning modern warfare, Hu claimed that the Ministry will need to develop new technologies and new products, improve product mix, and broaden the market for electronics goods.
The Ministry of Electronics Industry fulfilled various scientific research and production plans for the defense industries. Several thousand projects for research on military electronics have been undertaken to provide advanced and sophisticated weapons and equipment. The year 1997 was a crucial year in the Ninth Five-Year Plan for the development of military electronics. Supporting facilities developed key projects entered the stage of appraisal testing, design finalization and acceptance tests; new electronic information equipment was put on-line for debugging and testing; and a number of large systems engineering and research projects were launched.