washington —
China's drive to forge the globe's leading fighting force doesn't stop at conventional nuclear capacities. U.S. officials caution Beijing is investing in blend of psychological warfare and cyber operations. This extends to cognitive domain operations or CDO as they're known in Beijing. The objective is to alter the mindset and behavior of China's opponents. These operations can target any person. They can target even the most everyday citizen.
China sees controlling the flow of information in today’s battlespace as a key priority. It's a crucial enabler of information supremacy in the early stages of a conflict," Pentagon's China Military Power report released on Wednesday indicates.
The PLA is likely looking to use CDO as an asymmetric capability. It's a capacity for dissuading U.S. or third-party involvement in an upcoming conflict. Or as an offensive capacity for shaping perceptions or polarizing a society," the report indicates. It also mentions that for Chinese military officers "to subdue enemy without fighting is the highest pinnacle of warfare."
Pentagon's report doesn’t specify the amount of money Beijing invested in these endeavors. However the report indicates that in the past six years the PLA has been researching. The research has been on integrating new technologies. One of these technologies is artificial intelligence. The aim is to create deepfakes and other content. The content is created to mislead the public in the United States.
Report also mentions China has assigned tasks to some of its top technology companies. These companies include Baidu, Alibaba and Huawei. They need to use generative AI to make improved audio and video. Companies also have to produce more convincing text and images.
Successes and failures
Results have proven to be inconsistent.
U.S. intelligence officials repeatedly named China, Russia and Iran. They identified these countries for pushing AI-boosted influence operations. These operations were to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.
Several efforts were characterized as unskilled. "The quality is not as believable as you might expect," a U.S. intelligence official stated at that time.
Previous efforts were recognized by tech giant Microsoft. They referred to an advance in Beijing's capability to generate "eye-catching content." However queries persisted about the content's effectiveness and reach.
U.S. intelligence officials put forth that Beijing's influence campaigns hit obstacles. Difficulty arose from what they called a challenge by Chinese intelligence. The challenge was understanding the American psyche like other U.S. rivals, such as Russia. According to China, all these are accusations.
The U.S. has been spreading various disinformation about the "threats of Chinese hackers" for a long time, as stated by Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, in an email earlier this month. "Their sole aim is to aid their own geopolitical strategies" continued Pengyu. It was in context with allegations tying a Chinese-linked group labeled as Salt Typhoon. The group had supposedly hacked into U.S. telecommunications firms.
"The US needs to stop its cyber takedowns against other countries." The Embassy representative added this statement. "They should desist from defaming and slandering China through cybersecurity."
Yet, warn U.S. officials. China's psychological cyber maneuvers are akin to a success story. One group stands out for its accomplishments. The hacking group Volt Typhoon.
Volt Typhoon's deeds are worrying. The group is striving to infiltrate our key infrastructure. This isn't for intelligence gathering. But for disruption or destruction in case of a massive Taiwan Strait crisis. This was stated by Jen Easterly, director of U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
"Stimulate societal panic"
"This realm entails a war in Asia. This war could produce impacts. The impacts could stretch across our nation. There could be attacks against various things. Attacks against pipelines and water facilities for example. Attacks against transportation nodes. There could also be attacks against communication. The purpose? Inducing societal panic. Another aim is to impede our ability to muster military strength and citizen resolve". These are the words of Easterly. She was speaking at a virtual cyber conference earlier in the month.
CISA director made remarks. U.S. cyber teams collaborated with private companies. The goal was to dislodge Volt Typhoon from systems owned by these private firms. However, there is still a long way to go.
Easterly also commented. "We think what we've seen until now is barely the tip of the iceberg." These were Easterly's words.
Pentagon officials share these concerns. Maier said this during an interview, "I think we're starting to see greater focus in the cognitive space. This is not only on our leaders. It is directed at populations too. This approach can be destructive to the institutions we have. It is also very difficult to prevent. And deter. But also," he added "is incredibly hard to be frank."
They're going to be much more aggressive. They're going to take a lot more risk. Maier said this in response to a question from VOA. It was during an event in Washington on Wednesday. They will attempt to influence our population, using methods that we would consider completely inappropriate and threatening.
But Maier further questioned whether such tactics will ultimately yield the desired results.
The information tool is supremely useful. It's best when combined with physical actions. The actions should be carried out in a more strategic way, perhaps.
He suggested that China and Russia might do that, but the effects of such actions don’t seem to stick around for long.
"China and others might have a tough time. The U.S. is on alert." he pointed out.
"I believe they will see chances to exploit vulnerabilities," Maier said. She added, "I'm not sure they see themselves as vulnerable as they really are."
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