China Presents The Top Cyber & Military Challenge

Uploaded on 2025-04-02 in NEWS-Cybersecurity News, INTELLIGENCE-Hot Spots-China, INTELLIGENCE--USA, GOVERNMENT-Defence, FREE TO VIEW

China is the top military and cyber threat to the United States, according to a new report by The Office of National US Intelligence published on 18th March 2025. The report says that China has the ability to hit the US with conventional weapons and the US infrastructure through cyber-attacks, as well as seeking to displace the US as the top AI power by 2030.

In addition to China, the assessment analysed threats to the United States posed by Russia, North Korea, Iran and “non-state transnational criminals”, including Mexican drug cartels and Islamic extremist groups.

Russia seeks to challenge the US through deliberate campaigns to gain an advantage, with Moscow’s war in Ukraine having afforded it a “wealth of lessons regarding combat against western weapons and intelligence in a large-scale war”, said the report.

Released ahead of testimony before the Senate intelligence committee by Donald Trump’s intelligence chiefs, the report said China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) probably planned to use large cyber language models to create fake news, imitate personas and enable attack networks. China’s military is fielding advanced capabilities, including hypersonic weapons, stealth aircraft, advanced submarines, stronger space and cyberwarfare assets and a larger arsenal of nuclear weapons,” the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told the committee, labelling Beijing Washington’s “most capable strategic competitor”.

“China almost certainly has a multifaceted, national-level strategy designed to displace the United States as the world’s most influential AI power by 2030,” the report said.

The release coincided with the Chinese publication of a report by the China Cybersecurity Industry Alliance, accusing US intelligence agencies of “large scale and long-term” phone and online network hacking. The report described incidents stretching back over a decade, but was pushed out widely by state media and government agencies. China's Foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, expressed “grave concern” at a regular press briefing recently. “Over the years, the US has been accustomed to crying ‘stop thief’ on supply chain security issues, manipulating double standards, and vigorously hyping the so-called ‘5G supply chain security issues’, while cooperating with major internet companies or equipment suppliers in its own country to pre-install back doors in global information equipment products, serving its own network attack activities,” Guo said.

The CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, told the Senate committee that China had made only “intermittent” efforts to curtail the flow of precursor chemicals fuelling the US fentanyl crisis due to its reluctance to crack down on lucrative Chinese businesses.

As punishment, President Trump has raised the tariffs on all Chinese imports by 20% to for what he says is its failure to halt shipments of chemicals used to make the powerful narcotic, fentanyl.

US concerns about China dominated about a third of the 32-page report, which said it was set to increase military and economic coercion toward Taiwan, the democratically governed island China claims as its territory. “The PLA probably is making steady but uneven progress on capabilities it would use in an attempt to seize Taiwan and deter, and if necessary, defeat, US military intervention,” the report says.

However, the analysis is balanced by the recognition that China faces “daunting” domestic challenges, including corruption, demographic imbalances, and fiscal and economic headwinds that could impair the ruling Communist party’s legitimacy at home.

China’s economic growth probably will continue to slow because of low consumer and investor confidence, and Chinese officials appear to be bracing for more economic friction with the US, the report concludes.

Image: Ideogram

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