Opportunity Seldom Knocks Twice: Influencing China's Trajectory via Defend Forward / Persistent Engagement in Cyberspace
Abstract
In 2010, after years of meteoric economic growth, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership was publicly expressing concerns about economic stagnation and social unrest--conditions CCP leadership associated with the middle-income trap (MIT). As part of a multi-faceted strategy to mitigate the MIT and stave off impending calamity, China launched a massive campaign of cyber-enabled theft of U.S. intellectual property (IP). Evidence of successfully re-innovating illicitly acquired IP was arguably behind President Xi's confident exclamation in 2015 that growth would average 6.5% from 2015 to 2020, a target necessary for keeping the MIT at bay. The United States inability to abate Chinas campaign of IP theft, or willful choice to disregard it, was a lost opportunity to shape Chinas rise when its economy was in a vulnerable state. Opportunity is knocking again, however, as Chinas economy faces unexpected downward pressure from the Trump administrations tariff policy and novel coronavirus. To mitigate these pressures, the CCP has returned, again, to cyber-enabled IP theft. This time around, however, the United States has a new arrow in its quiver to act on this opportunity: a mature U.S. Cyber Command and a Department of Defense cyber strategy aligned to the challenge.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1222290
Entities
People
- Michael P. Fischerkeller
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses