In the briefing to Congress, the Pentagon said that “uncertainty about how China will use its growing capabilities,” especially in its development of power- projection platforms such as aircraft carriers, submarines, fighter jets, and long-range surface-to-air missiles, is worrying.
The buildup could lead to misunderstanding and miscalculation and could worry surrounding countries, Michael Schiffer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. (www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4868)
China’s expanding military may tempt the communist regime to use its powers “to gain diplomatic advantage, advance its interests, or resolve … disputes in its favor,” the Pentagon warned in its yearly review.
In the South China Sea, for example, China’s increasingly aggressive stance has irked other players and risks escalating regional tension.
“In recent years, some of China’s neighbors have questioned Beijing’s long-term commitment to peacefully and cooperatively resolve the remainder of its disputes,” the report says. It notes that the Chinese navy has repeatedly circumnavigated the Sea since 2005, and that civilian ships, sometimes supported by military ones, have harassed foreign vessels.
The report suggests that the regime’s economic weight is leading to a more aggressive maritime posture.
Despite a warming of relations between Taiwan and the mainland, a potential Taiwan contingency remains the Chinese military’s “main strategic direction,” the report says.
The regime is building a military geared up for potential conflict with Taiwan, the report suggests. In addition, cyberwarfare is able to boost the power of the military by playing a supporting role.
Hacking campaigns that appear to originate from China and that target the systems of U.S. government entities and other organizations around the globe in recent years show that the regime has the ability to use hacking as a weapon.
“The accesses and skills required for these intrusions are similar to those necessary to conduct computer network attacks,” the report notes, adding that China’s own 2010 Defense White Paper emphasized the “importance of cyber-security in China’s national defense.”
Cyberwarfare in support of military operations can impart a three-pronged purpose: First, attacks can “allow data collection through exfiltration.” Then they can “constrain an adversary’s actions or slow response time by targeting network-based logistics [and] communications.” Last, they can “serve as a force multiplier when coupled with kinetic attacks [involving physical assets] during times of crisis or conflict.”
China’s investment in its cyberwarfare capabilities, as well as in its emerging space program, shows that the China’s regime and military are becoming ever more focused on winning the information and communication war as part of its military strategy.
“China’s information blockade likely envisions employment of military and non-military instruments of state power across the battle space, including in cyberspace and outer space,” two key platforms that military communications are routed through, the Pentagon report said.
Advanced electronic warfare systems, counterspace weapons, and computer- network operations are melded with old-style Communist Party methods like propaganda, deception, and denial through opacity, the report says.
All this “reflect[s] the emphasis and priority China’s leaders place on building capability for information advantage.”
