NEWS AND ANALYSIS:
China‘s brain warfare includes sleep weapons, thought control
China‘s military is developing advanced psychological warfare and brain-influencing weapons as part of a new warfighting strategy, according to a report on People’s Liberation Army cognitive warfare.
The report, “Warfare in the Cognitive Age: NeuroStrike and the PLA’s Advanced Psychological Weapons and Tactics,” was printed earlier this month by The CCP Biothreats Initiative, a analysis group.
“The PLA is at the forefront of incorporating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces and novel biological weapons into its military strategies,” the suppose tank’s analysts concluded.
The report recognized two current research by China‘s army that open-source researchers say indicate the Chinese military is augmenting “hard power” weapons with new types of arms to help win wars without conventional weapons. The new arms include biological weapons designed to induce sleep or sleep-related disturbances in enemy troops. The goal is to impair cognition and alertness.
Other weapons involve devices that establish a direct connection between the brain and external technology, designed to influence cognitive processes and decision-making. Brain-controlled weapons are also being developed to enable precise targeting and manipulation of cognitive functions in enemy troops or leaders.
The Chinese army is also working on advanced arms that can be controlled directly by a soldier’s ideas and can search cognitive manipulation and management of enemies.
Other weapons it’s engaged on embody “genetic drugs” — prescription drugs designed to change the genetic and physiological make-up of individuals and search to impression cognitive, emotional, and behavioral traits.
Military gadgets for cognitive battle embody anti-sleep glasses which can be wearable gadgets that may promote wakefulness and application. Electronic arms embody “soft-kill radio waves” that use electromagnetic vitality for nonlethal assaults, inducing drowsiness or cognitive impairment in adversaries, the report mentioned.
“In summary, the PLA’s integration of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, [brain-computer interfaces], and biological weapons into its military arsenal brings significant psychological dimensions to warfare, extending beyond their physical effects,” the report mentioned.
The report was written by 4 consultants with army and intelligence expertise on the initiative: L.J. Eads, Ryan Clarke, Xiaoxu Sean Lin and Robert McCreight, who first coined the time period neurostrike to explain a component of mind warfare.
The report cites a 2022 Chinese military report that identifies the “five battles of cognition” for use in superior psychological warfare operations. The operations will search to form future battlefields past bodily conflicts.
The battles embody preemptive cognition that seeks to realize the “moral high ground” for the Chinese previous to hostilities, the report mentioned.
“The objective is to create a powerful deterrent and asymmetric advantage,” the report mentioned.
The consultants’ report additionally discloses deliberate Chinese defenses in opposition to psychological warfare assaults. The analysis is being finished by two Chinese army organizations referred to as Unit 94969 and Unit 96812, that are engaged on each protection and offensive cognitive warfare.
The PLA program “represents a strategic direction, integrating neuroscience and technology to develop weapons systems that can impair cognition, reduce situational awareness, and degrade neurological functions over the long term,” the report mentioned.
“The CCP’s vision for NeuroStrike encompasses a holistic approach, part of a broader asymmetric warfare strategy aimed at establishing a strategic edge over adversaries, particularly the United States and perceived rivals in the Indo-Pacific region, such as Taiwan, Japan, Australia, or India,” the report mentioned, utilizing the abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwan buys U.S. command and management upgrades
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency introduced final week that Taiwan is accelerating wanted upgrades to its command and management techniques in an effort to bolster the island’s army forces. The gear is an element of a bigger Taiwanese army modernization to “meet current and future threats” with higher army command and management, the company mentioned in saying the sale.
The $300 million sale introduced Dec. 15 comes amid mounting threats to Taiwan by Chinese army forces across the island democracy.
In Taipei, the Defense Ministry mentioned the sale will enhance battlefield consciousness: “The Chinese communists’ frequent military operations around Taiwan presents a serious threat to us,” the ministry mentioned in a press release, noting that the sale will take impact in a month.
Taiwan’s army at the moment makes use of the Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems-Low Volume Terminals system, referred to as MIDS-LVT.
That system is utilized by U.S. and allied plane, ships, and floor items and permits commanders to speak with forces by voice, video and information throughout army operations. The Taiwanese army additionally makes use of the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System, a key army command and management system used to coordinate air, floor and naval forces.
The system is hardened in opposition to digital assault and is used for situational consciousness throughout fight.
Beijing denounced the newest sale as a violation of agreements with the United States relating to Taiwan.
The sale “seriously undermined China‘s sovereignty and security, posed a grave threat to the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sent an erroneous signal to separatist elements advocating Taiwan independence, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told state media.
China sending balloons near Taiwan
Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloons were detected near Taiwanese territory this week, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry reported this week. The first balloon encounter took place Sunday when two aerostats were spotted crossing the unofficial China-Taiwan dividing line down the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said.
The balloons were traveling east at an altitude of 27,000 feet and were part of a Chinese military operation involving six warplanes and two naval vessels near the island. These have become daily activities by Beijing’s military.
A second incident took place Monday with a surveillance balloon flying at 15,000 feet and crossing the median line, along with four other Chinese military aircraft and 3 naval vessels. A third balloon was spotted Tuesday at about 12,000 feet and also crossed the median line.
A Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down by a U.S. Air Force jet in February over the Atlantic after it traversed across the United States in what U.S. officials said was a spying operation.
A report by China’s National University of Defense Technology published in October stated that the high-altitude balloon program is linked to the hypersonic missile program that will be used in what the report said would be a “merciless” assault in a battle with the United States.
China launches fourth assault ship in three years
China‘s economic downturn and political purges in the People’s Liberation Army don’t seem to have slowed the nation’s army buildup, together with the launching final week at a Shanghai shipyard of the PLA’s fourth Type 075 large-deck helicopter assault ship.
Photos of the newest LHD, or touchdown helicopter deck, circulated on Weibo, China‘s tightly managed social media platform.
To produce 4 of the ships in three years is a big achievement for the Chinese navy, which is now bigger when it comes to numbers of warships than another navy on this planet, together with the U.S. Navy. The newest helicopter provider launch, first reported by the net web site Naval News, follows manufacturing and commissioning of three different Type 075s since April 2021.
The 4 assault ships are anticipated to play main roles in any Chinese army assault on Taiwan. Deployment of the 4 warships is probably going designed to extend that vertical amphibious assault functionality alongside the mountainous east coast of Taiwan, in line with a report on the ships in Naval News, a Europe-based outlet.
“Continued construction of the Type 075 is part of a wider trend in PLA [navy] modernizing and expanding amphibious capabilities across a range of vessels,” the report mentioned.
Other Taiwan-related naval exercise contains renewed development of Zubr-class massive sealift hovercraft and stepped up manufacturing of tank touchdown ships. China additionally has eight Type 071 amphibious transport docks in its naval forces and is transferring forward with the event of a brand new touchdown craft.
Building 4 large-deck helicopters carriers in three years renders many assessments of Chinese decline flawed, analysts say.
• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.
