The ministry was formed in 1982 to centralize Chinese defense procurement and technology whose responsibility had been distributed among several agencies.
[1] The final-term COSTIND deputy director, Chen Qiufa, was named as the head of SASTIND.
The main focus of this reorganization was to separate the purchasing of weaponry which became the responsibility of the General Armaments Division of the People's Liberation Army, the production and development of weaponry which became the responsibility of several different enterprises such as China Northern Industries and China Southern Industries which were state-owned but not under direct state management, and the development of policy for these industries which became the responsibility of COSTIND.
"[3] French journalist Roger Faligot described COSTIND as an "intelligence vacuum cleaner" for collecting foreign scientific, technological, and industrial information.
[4] According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the China Atomic Energy Authority was part of COSTIND.