China’s AI Arsenal: The PLA’s Tech Strategy Is Working

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is aggressively pursuing its third military modernization phase, 'intelligentization,' focusing on integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) across its forces following successful mechanization and informatization. Research based on PLA procurement requests shows striking speed in prototyping AI capabilities for autonomous combat vehicles, cyber defense, target identification, and data analysis to enhance decision-making. Strategically, Beijing views AI as crucial for future "system of systems" confrontations, aiming to degrade enemy command nodes. While the PLA mirrors some U.S. AI programs, it also focuses heavily on cognitive warfare tools like deepfakes and AI decision-support systems potentially to compensate for an inexperienced officer corps. Although the PLA faces hurdles in data acquisition and deployment effectiveness demonstrated in conflicts like Ukraine, its rapid prototyping and commercial technology integration allow for fast iteration. To compete, the U.S. must accelerate its own acquisition processes, foster closer partnerships with frontier AI labs, and educate personnel on AI limitations, as the competition hinges on which force can scale novel capabilities faster.

(Source：Foreign Affairs)