The Chinese Communist Party has long waged unconventional warfare against the United States on multiple fronts, one of which is the use of an online army to conduct covert propaganda and disinformation campaigns against the United States in the “gray area” of non-armed conflict. U.S. Special Operations Command is now preparing to wage information warfare against the Chinese Communist Party.
U.S. Cyber Command is also addressing the issue of Chinese Communist Party cyberattacks in the United States.
Chinese Communist Party Using “Gray Areas” to Launch Information Warfare
The Washington Times recently reported that U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is shifting its strategic focus from fighting terrorists to fighting Chinese communist disinformation, preparing for a covert role in any future conflict with Beijing.
U.S. Special Operations Command is the coordinating body for U.S. special forces affiliated with all branches of the military, primarily responding to a variety of conflicts in unconventional warfare situations, with information warfare and psychological warfare being among them.
In recent Senate Armed Services Committee testimony, General Richard D. Clarke, commander of Special Operations Command, disclosed that the U.S. military is preparing to establish the first “Joint Task Force Indo-Pacific” (JTFIP). Task Force Indo-Pacific, one of the task force’s most important missions, is to “combat some of the expanding disinformation campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese Communist Party has been engaged in a sophisticated propaganda and disinformation campaign that has received little media or government exposure. In his testimony, General Clark said many of the military’s current challenges occur in the information arena, where “disinformation is being used as a political weapon at a rate and scale beyond imagination, and without geopolitical constraints.
General Clark said China (Communist Party of China) and Russia are attacking U.S. targets in a “gray area” that is not an armed conflict. As a result, “working in the information area is absolutely critical.”
Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, vice chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said at the hearing that both the Chinese Communist Party and Russia are expanding their use of irregular warfare globally, including cyberattacks, disinformation, proxy wars and economic blackmail.
“They have proven that these tactics are effective in places like Ukraine, Syria and the South China Sea, and now they are exporting them to Africa and the Western Hemisphere.” Inhofe said.
Adm. Philip S. Davidson, commander of Indo-Pacific Command, also told a congressional hearing that Chinese Communist Party officials operate “a huge disinformation creation and dissemination machine.
“They use conventional and social media and employ nearly 1 million people through their propaganda machine to fabricate and disseminate disinformation to the detriment of the United States and to generate distrust between us and our allies and undermine our international environment,” he said. He said.
Special Forces being trained to deal with Communist China
General Clark said information warfare is part of a U.S. military modernization program that includes better intelligence capabilities, artificial intelligence systems, encrypted communications and electronic warfare weapons.
“In order for us to compete effectively in the future, we must modernize both our precision strike and (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities) so that (troops) can quickly see and sense, the battlefield where they may be ready to fight in a time of crisis.”
After nine combatant commanders, including Gen. Clark, sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in January seeking more support to better detect malicious activities by the Chinese Communist Party and Russia, the Pentagon responded by lifting some restrictions.
Since 2001, the task force has been trained in the cultural and language skills needed to fight terrorists in the Middle East. Now, they are being trained with a primary focus on dealing with the Chinese Communist Party.
The Special Forces are currently about 5,000 strong, at their lowest point since 2001, and 40 percent of them, it is expected, will be deployed to counter the Chinese Communist and Russian threats. These activities involve strengthening alliances to counter the CCP, Russia and other major powers, as well as training and other measures to confront them in non-armed conflict situations.
The Special Operations Command also operates the Military Intelligence Information Systems WebOps Center (MISO WebOps Center), which is described as the leading military Internet operation designed to detect and combat foreign propaganda and disinformation online. This year the center will add its first foreign partners and interagency liaison officers.
U.S. Cyber Command Takes on Domestic Cyber Attacks
Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of the Pentagon’s Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), recently revealed how crafty hackers from the Communist Party of China and Russia have used U.S. privacy laws to escape accountability.
In the past, cyber attacks were launched from different parts of the world. But in recent years, hackers have entered U.S. territory and used U.S. infrastructure to attack the country in a timely and efficient manner, leaving the United States defenseless. For example, the Russian attack on SolarWinds and the Chinese Communist attack on Microsoft both occurred within the United States, but the private sector was unable to share the information with the government based on privacy laws under the Fourth Amendment.
This has created a “blind spot” for the NSA and Cyber Command, which Nakasone likens to pouring water into a flawed bucket that will never be filled.
Nakasone said, “What I know for sure now is that our adversaries understand that they can get into the United States and quickly use U.S. networks to attack and then launch a successful cyberattack before a warrant is issued and before the authorities get involved.” He said, “That’s the challenge we face now.”
Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA), with advanced technology and unified coordination, according to Nakasone, “have all the capabilities we want, all the teams we want,” but are legally authorized to operate overseas; the FBI and other agencies are authorized to operate within the United States, but lack advanced technology.
The U.S. government is seeking a solution to the problem, but Nakasone did not elaborate. One solution, though, Nakasone said, is a better partnership between the government and the private sector.
The U.S. Cyber Command has about 6,000 employees under it and has 133 teams that can conduct defensive and offensive cyber operations. The NSA, on the other hand, employs as many as 40,000 people.
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