Amidst the unprecedented sighting of a Chinese militia boat on the east coast of Taiwan, Chinese authorities have rolled out a series of regulatory changes signaling intensified preparations for potential conflicts.  At the national level, China’s National Development and Reform Commission issued a new set of measures on civil air defense facilities.  These measures will take effect on November 1, a month after the significant revision of the National Defense Mobilization Law entered into force.  At the local level, more than a dozen authorities in various provinces or major cities such as Shanghai have also published their own measures aimed at strengthening their civil air defense systems.   

President XI Jinping should welcome these developments because he highlighted the need to have a strong civil air defense system in the country a full decade ago.  However, these developments may be perceived differently by foreign investors searching for signs of peace and stability—especially because, under the newly revised National Defense Mobilization Law, these foreign investments in China have the potential to be expropriated should the country implement national defense mobilization (see Foreign Investment and China’s Mobilization for National Defense).

“However, these developments may be perceived differently by foreign investors searching for signs of peace and stability […].”

Previous Speeches from Leaders on Civil Air Defense

In May 2016, at a national conference on civil air defense, President Xi emphasized the need to uphold the principle of building civil air defense facilities to serve people.  He stressed the need to fulfill the mission of using these facilities for air defense during wartime and for services and emergency support during peacetime.

At the same conference, LI Keqiang, China’s premier at the time, provided more details to help deepen understanding of Xi’s vision.  Describing the construction of civil air defense facilities as building an “underground Great Wall” that protects people’s lives and property and safeguards China’s economic and social development, he explained the need to create “an interconnected, highly accessible urban underground space [network]” that is capable of serving both peacetime and wartime needs.  As building and maintaining such a network require massive amounts of resources, Premier Li encouraged the use of different financing mechanisms to allow various entities in society to participate in the construction, operation, and management of civil air defense facilities.

Recently Introduced National Measures

In March 2026, ten years after President Xi delivered the aforementioned speech, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that it would formulate within the year new measures on civil air defense facilities.  This announcement came at a time when China’s national legislature directed its attention to preparing the draft revision of the National Defense Mobilization Law, which was made available for public comment in May 2026.  The revised law was passed in August 2026.

Against the backdrop of such regulatory changes related to national defense, the National Development and Reform Commission released in September 2026 the Measures for the Development, Utilization, Maintenance, and Management of Civil Air Defense Projects to replace a set of similar rules issued 25 years ago.  The stated purposes of the Measures are to, inter alia, “enhance the level of development and utilization of civil air defense projects”, “standardize [their] maintenance and management”, and “realize their combat readiness benefits as well as social and economic benefits”.

“Against the backdrop of such regulatory changes related to national defense, the National Development and Reform Commission released in September 2026 […].”

Under the Measures, civil air defense projects are classified into public and non-public ones.  The former refers to those projects invested in and constructed by civil air defense authorities at various levels using fiscal funds or those projects for which the registered holders of the real property ownership certificates are civil air defense authorities or their affiliated units.  Civil air defense projects that do not meet the requirements specified in the preceding sentence are non-public civil air defense projects.

Articles 6 and 7 of the Measures also specify the entities responsible for the development, utilization, maintenance, and management of different types of civil air defense projects and various funding approaches.  In line with the spirit of Premier Li’s speech regarding the financing mechanisms, Article 8 of the Measures states that localities are encouraged to explore the establishment of maintenance fund systems and the adoption of commercial insurance for civil air defense facilities.

Measures Introduced at the Local Level

The Measures for the Development, Utilization, Maintenance, and Management of Civil Air Defense Projects are composed of only 25 short articles.  The National Development and Reform Commission makes it clear in Article 24 that local authorities overseeing civil air defense may formulate detailed implementing rules in accordance with the Measures.  A series of local rules of this type is, therefore, expected to be released in the coming months to take the country’s preparation for potential conflicts to another level.  

Yet, it should be noted that more than a dozen localities acted early this year to introduce their own regulatory changes related to civil air defense—signaling their swift responses to the country’s growing focus on national defense.  Localities which have introduced their own changes include Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, and Shandong provinces as well as major cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.

The many regulatory changes on civil air defense which have taken place within the last year reflect China’s devotion to solidifying the “underground Great Wall” across the country.  This, together with the unprecedented sighting of a Chinese militia boat on the east coast of Taiwan, should prompt foreign investors to seriously consider contingency plans, in the hope of shielding their investments in China from not only potential expropriations but also decline in value triggered by evolving, uncertain circumstances.

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• The citation of this article is: The Editorial Board of SINOTALKS^®, China’s New Measures on Civil Air Defense, SINOTALKS.COM^®, SinoExpress™, Oct. 14, 2026, https://sinotalks.com/sinoexpress/china-civil-air-defense. ↩︎

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