China's 'Unrestricted Warfare': Is It Here Already?
by Pete Hoekstra • March 26, 2024 at 5:00 am
China-linked hackers appear to be looking to attack U.S. infrastructure, especially key components such as the electrical grid, water reservoirs and treatment plants, pipelines, and transportation and communications systems, among other targets.
The goal is seemingly to disrupt the U.S. everything critical to life – if you have no electricity, your cellphone will not work; no water will come out of the tap; gas pumps will not pump gas; flights and trains will stop, and disease from disabled sewage treatment plants will spread. There will be havoc and panic. The government and military will be unable to protect the nation. That is what is meant by "unrestricted warfare." Not a bullet was fired. It did not have to be. According to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, it is perfect.
What are some of the steps that should be taken?
The West has correctly identified the CCP as the malign threat that it is; now we have a responsibility to put into place the measures and deterrents to prevent it from attacking us through cyberspace or any other way. Let us not wait until we experience a 9/11-scale cyberattack that could be far more damaging to the U.S. than what took place on that dark day more than 20 years ago.
If there is one thing FBI Director Christopher Wray has been consistent on, it is the threat of Communist China across a wide range of fronts. At an unprecedented event on July 6, 2022, Wray and his British counterpart, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, held a joint public appearance – the first ever -- to discuss the growing security challenge posed by China. Evidently, they saw the matter as urgent.
In this joint appearance, the two men highlighted the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the CCP's civil-military fusion state -- specifically, that the CCP is intent on acquiring and stealing technology and business secrets from the West. Targeted areas include advanced materials, data and artificial intelligence (AI). China's President Xi Jinping has made it clear that he intends China to not only catch-up to, but surpass, the West.