A new Pentagon report, “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” details the advancements of the Chinese military, including its efforts in AI and cognitive domain operations (CDO).
CDO combines “psychological warfare with cyber operations to shape adversary behavior and decision-making,” the report says.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “increasingly views warfare as a confrontation between opposing operational systems, rather than annihilation of opposing mechanized military forces,” it explains. “Following this logic, PLA writings refer to systems destruction warfare as the next way of war, transforming from mechanized warfare to an informatized and intelligentized style. Although not a new PLA approach, systems destruction warfare likely continues to be the principal theory guiding its way of war.”
CDO, also known as cognitive warfare, is used for influence operations, the Pentagon wrote. It is also described as “the next evolution of psychological warfare.”
The PLA is believed to be “incorporating emerging technologies, such as AI, big data, brain science, and neuroscience into CDO,” as a means to “subvert human intelligence,” the report adds.
“From the PRC’s perspective, all nations—especially the United States—that use digital narratives to undermine the CCP’s authoritarian system and employ offensive influence operations. Hence, the PRC considers its influence operations that counter this perceived subversion as defensive to protect the party and the military,” the report notes.
According to the report, China is “prioritizing the development of AI-enabled capabilities because of its belief that AI is leading to the next revolution in military affairs.” The Pentagon believes China will utilize what it describes as “algorithmic warfare” and “network-centric warfare” by 2030.
China is also exploring “autonomous vehicles, predictive maintenance and logistics, and automated target recognition,” the report says.
The report also details China’s nuclear capabilities, biological and chemical research, and missile systems.
