China signed new rules on military equipment contracts on Saturday (March 19), the Xinhua news agency said, citing the country's long-standing efforts to modernize the military.
China aims to complete the modernization of its armed forces by 2035 and turn the World Liberation Army (PLA) into a world military class by the middle of the century.
President Xi Jinping, who also chairs the Central Military Oversight Commission, continues to push for new rules and regulations regarding the evaluation, purchase and testing of weapons and equipment.
The latest rules aim to improve the efficiency of military equipment procurement and ensure that quality equipment is supplied to the military, Xinhua said, without specifying.
The rules begin on March 20. The announcement came a day after Xi Jinping had a video call with his American counterpart, Joe Biden, discussing the war in Ukraine.
During the call, Biden warned China against supporting the Russian attack on Ukraine. Biden also said that China, which had called for an armistice in Ukraine, was making its own decisions.
For decades, Russia has helped China modernize its military and supplied its neighbors with weapons and equipment from naval artillery to aircraft. According to independent firearms transfer data, no firearms transfers have taken place in the opposite direction. In October last year, Xi Jinping called for efforts to "break new ground" in the development of military equipment and weapons for the PLA.
China regularly conducts military exercises in the South China Sea, many of which claim. It also occasionally deploys military aircraft to Taiwan's self-governing air defense zone, which China claims to be its own territory.
On Friday, China sailed its aircraft carrier Shandong through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, a source told Reuters earlier.
China also has a long border dispute with India. China, which claims to be pursuing a national defense policy, plans to spend 7.1 percent more on defense this year than last year's increase.