General inventions can also be used in national defense products. Do you have to take the national defense patent application route when applying for a patent?

At present, national defense patents are specially set up for national defense scientific research units. Even if you invent a patent dedicated to national defense, ordinary people can't apply for it because you are not qualified to keep it secret.

There is no need to make a separate confidentiality statement when applying for a foreign patent. You only need to pass the PCT application in China National Intellectual Property Administration, and your patent will be subject to confidentiality review by default.