The latter systems were acquired from Russia in the late 2010's, after which the United States Department of State imposed sanctions on the Equipment Development Department and its head Li Shangfu (then a lieutenant general) in September 2018 under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

[7] The establishment of the Department for Weapons Development as part of the 2015 reforms did bring a significant change in the procurement process.

Tenders became then open to the public through a website operated by the department, the “All-PLA Arms and Equipment Purchase Information Network” (全军武器装备采购信息).

This entails that as much dual-use technology as possible should be developed, such as carbon fiber materials, information security in cloud computing, hybrid drives and renewable energies.

[8] In order to facilitate this integration, efforts are being made to unify the standards for software and information sharing in the military and civilian sectors.