China playing the cybersecurity long game

China’s leadership is ready to take its cyberwarfare capabilities to the next level.  For some time, cybersecurity has been “on the bench” while other aspects of Chinese cyber capabilities, mostly those related to the economy, were developed. Under the guidance of the 13th Five-Year Plan, China intends to have a robust architecture in place both for defending against cyberattacks and for launching attacks against their nation-state rivals (read, the United States) by 2025.

Wu Yunkun, president of the Qi An Xin Group, describes the national-security side of cyberspace as being the “network confrontation between nations.” Wu correctly assesses that “informatization supports individuals, enterprises, society, and the country. If informatization is destroyed, these will not survive.”

In a discourse with state media, Wu spoke extensively about his concern regarding China’s supply-chain vulnerabilities and Beijing’s desire to develop “asymmetric” capabilities in the cyberspace domain.

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