Brooke Taylor
Recent reports of Chinese malware compromising the Department of Defense military network are revealing but hardly shocking. China’s People’s Liberation Army technological and cyber-capabilities posed a national security risk for the United States for decades. Historically, China prefers to conduct gray zone operations under conventional warfare’s threshold to achieve its national security objectives.
The more significant and more pressing concern for the United States and its allies is the overt and increased willingness of the Chinese Communist Party to steer away from its typical veiled methods of secrecy and to reveal its egregious and passive-aggressive actions. The United States cannot afford to miss the strategic signaling — the Chinese are not coming; they are here.
China adheres to a long-term national grand strategy that exceeds the United States’ short-term planning around the federal government’s electoral cycles of two, four or six years. In contrast, China plans by generation. Most of its individual dynasties lasted longer than the total history of the United States. Additionally, China has clearly stated and set the goal to become the world’s dominant power by 2049 and end its “century of humiliation.”
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Reflecting on a mere handful of public examples within recent months highlights an increased footprint of China’s gray zone operations. In the fall of 2022, President Xi Jinping described former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a “serious provocation.” Early in 2023, a Chinese spy balloon flew across the continental United States before being shot down over coastal waters. In the summer of 2023, Microsoft disclosed the Chinese government had spied on U.S. government agencies via a vulnerability in its cloud-based services.
The debate among U.S. policymakers continues to surround TikTok, the Beijing-based application and weapon of social destruction. The most recent example is Chinese malware planted inside the Department of Defense, creating vulnerability within military cyber networks. In addition, in May 2023, Chinese hackers also compromised military systems in Guam, which houses the United States’ closest military assets near Taiwan.
These actions are directly out of the Chinese Communist Party’s playbook in how the one-party ruled system interfaces and coordinates its national security objectives against its adversaries, including the United States. While diplomatic considerations between the West and the East should be preserved, a strong divide and reality naturally exists between a democratic and authoritarian society.
This reality must be recognized and responded to appropriately by U.S. officials and policymakers. The uptick of the Chinese Communist Party’s nefarious actions places America’s social, political, economic and national security at risk. Absent a response of strength enforced (when necessary) with consequences, the CCP will continue to insert and exploit any advantage to achieve its long-term strategic goals. Peaceful existence or subservience to a Western superpower are not goals of a rising China.
Practical personal recommendations for government and private devices include resetting account passwords frequently and ensuring devices have up-to-date malware, spyware and cybersecurity protections. Refrain from using and uninstalling TikTok from all devices and instead engage with social media applications where governments do not harvest an individual’s information to manipulate and exploit the data.
U.S. leaders must also deny the entry points the CCP is exploiting. The work of the Athenai Institute (where I serve on the board of directors) exposes and works to stop the CCP’s influence on university campuses across the country. America’s institutions of higher learning are not pawns in the CCP’s endgame. Each time the Chinese Communist Party’s gray zone operations are publicly revealed, voices that champion freedom should rally together to form a massive outcry and national response.
Political recommendations for the United States include encouraging companies and individuals to divest funding from CCP-backed corporations. The recent introduction in Congress of the Dump Investments in Troublesome Communist Holdings Act would force divestment from non-profits, university endowments, public pension plans, and/or any other tax-exempt entity to divest from Chinese companies or lose their organization’s tax-exempt status.
The Chinese Communist Party is here and increasingly asserts itself within the border and systems of the United States through the guise of gray zone warfare. In return, U.S. leadership must present a strong national resolve guided by the rule of law, international diplomacy and a military capability prepared to defend and protect its citizens at home and abroad.
Brooke Taylor serves on the board of directors for the Athenai Institute. She is founder and CEO of Defending Our Country, and a distinguished faculty for Missouri State University’s Defense and Strategic Studies Program. The opinions are the writer’s.
