The Economist published a briefing of China’s low-altitude economy, discussing its growth, the market potential, how it interacts with China’s bureaucracy, and how it’s one in a line of “X economy” pushes by the Chinese government, following the ice-and-snow economy1¹ Encouraging winter activities like skiing. and the silver economy2² Something about older people?. These were attempts to fuel the growth of the country by taking advantage of untapped opportunities.

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Either the Economist misses something, or decided not to ask the relevant question. Semi-autonomous low-altitude aircraft have been in the news a lot lately, after all. Mainly for their much less civilian uses in the Russo–Ukrainian war.

What if, hear me out here, China recognises that the next decade of war is fought with drones, and they want to make sure they have all the competence needed within its borders not only for manufacturing, but also innovating on drone capabilities?

To quote the article,

This year alone six universities have established degree courses in “low-altitude technology and engineering”.

Is that not a wet dream for a large country with interventionist plans? That sounds a lot like what the US did during the cold war to innovate on weaponry.

There are also signs that this low-altitude economy is a bigger project than the previous X economies:

In December the powerful state planning agency created a department specifically to foster the low-altitude economy. That is another strong indication of the government’s enthusiasm: other such departments have much broader remits, such as “national defence” or “employment”.

I don’t think we ever had a snow-and-ice department!

Early last year Li Qiang, the prime minister, declared the low-altitude economy an engine of growth in the government’s annual agenda-setting report, alongside artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Yeah, all three technologies have civilian uses, of course, but also have massively important adversarial applications.

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Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s nothing offensive about China’s drone technology at all. I’m just surprised it didn’t at least get a brief mention in the article – or anywhere else that I can find!