Glenn Chafetz
The main battle space in the conflict between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States is not land, sea, air, space, or even cyberspace. It is the American economy. In this Second Cold War, the principal U.S. combatants do not fire weapons, sail ships, or fly aircraft; they run businesses. Although commonly referred to as the “Second Cold War,” it remains putative and is not officially recognized by the U.S. government. This war is asymmetric: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) centrally directs the entirety of its party-state-economic machinery, including its putatively private companies, against the decentralized, civilian assets of the United States’ commercial sector, critical infrastructure, and civil society. U.S. political leaders struggle to respond effectively because the tactics and “weapons” China employs, most notably cyber intrusions, commercial espionage, and influence operations, are hidden, incremental, and deniable. Moreover, the principal targets of the CCP efforts are private companies and infrastructure networks diffused across the United States, and the government has neither the resources nor authorities to defend so many entities. This means that businesses must defend themselves. However, the U.S. private sector is not remotely up to that task.
China’s Goals And Methods
China outlines its strategy in the current People’s Liberation Army (PLA) doctrine. China envisions winning this war without firing a shot. Victory follows instead from the compromise of U.S. critical infrastructure and erosion of the economic foundations of U.S. power. Beijing’s goal is to render the United States logistically, economically, and politically incapable of challenging China’s freedom of action globally, and most especially in the Western Pacific. Being prudent, China’s leaders plan for the possibility of a hot war on the way to this goal, but they view shooting wars as unpredictable, and thus best avoided. It is far better to reduce the United States’ ability to use, or even seriously threaten, military action. Toward that goal, the CCP applies three broad methods: compromise of U.S. critical infrastructure; reduction of U.S. economic power; and influence over U.S. politics and society.
Compromise of Critical Infrastructure
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