In the Art of War, Sun Tzu described warfare as being "based on deception." He explained that a good strategist uses deception everywhere. When you're strong, appear weak; when you're close, appear to be far away. And the list goes on. Although written in the fifth century B.C., this guidance is precisely how China has engaged in its digital warfare with the United States in the modern day.
Let's look at an example.
In 2017, the Chinese government offered the U.S. government $100 million to build an extravagant 12-acre garden in our National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. The garden was the most ambitious horticultural endeavor China has ever pursued, with "enticing moongate entrances, swooping and soaring roof lines, grand pavilions with carved wooden screens and groves of golden bamboo." It was going to be spectacular. The deal, at least as pitched, appeared to be great for the United States: we gain a global attraction, and it wouldn't cost the taxpayer a dime.
So where is this fantastic garden?
Before it could be built, the FBI took a deep dive, and it turned out that deal was a ruse. The Chinese government wanted to build the garden to strategically place Huawei equipment that could monitor critical defense communications. The Trump administration summarily canceled the project.
This is emblematic of China's digital espionage strategy—turn seemingly innocuous products into spying devices. Yes, that includes weather balloons. But it's so much more. TikTok, for instance, is pitched as an innocent social media app, when in reality it is a sophisticated tool to gain access to your wireless device. FBI Director Chris Wray has warned that Chinese apps like TikTok can use their algorithms for "influence operations" and to conduct espionage operations.
China leverages this ploy in the telecom sector too. Huawei and ZTE, China's largest telecom companies, pitched themselves as a cheaper manufacturing option for carriers seeking to add more capacity to their networks. In fact, Chinese spies use this technology to surveil citizens wherever it is deployed. As Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines stressed, China uses communication networks to "develop[] frameworks for collecting foreign data and pulling it in...to target audiences for information campaigns or for other things."
The fact is that Huawei has a lot of tools for turning telecom giants into spying enterprises. As former U.S. national security adviser Robert O'Brien puts it, "we have evidence that Huawei has the capability secretly to access sensitive and personal information in systems it maintains and sells around the world." Australian officials found that one Huawei software update allowed Chinese spies to spy on government officials.
Fortunately, lawmakers on the federal and state level have taken action. The U.S. has banned the use of TikTok on federal government devices and Montana passed a law to ban TikTok outright. We have also made great strides to get Huawei and other Chinese telecom equipment out of our networks. For instance, in 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibited carriers from using its Universal Service Fund to purchase Huawei and ZTE equipment. What's more, Congress passed the Secure and Trusted Networks Act, which created the FCC's rip-and-replace programs, which compensates carriers when they remove threatening telecom equipment from their networks.
But we are far from safe from China's digital threat.
As of now, TikTok has 80 million active American users. Moreover, there are at least 24,000 pieces of equipment from Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese companies spread over 8,000 locations in our wireless telecom networks. The government has only provided the FCC with enough resources to remove 40 percent of the Chinese equipment in our networks.
Simply put, we need a full commercial TikTok ban and more funding for the FCC to truly rid ourselves of malicious spyware.
Fortunately, there is a bipartisan consensus on providing more funding for rip-and-replace. Recently, Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) introduced the Defend Our Networks Act, which would reallocate about 3 percent of unobligated emergency COVID relief funds to the FCC's rip-and-replace program. Better yet, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Democrat Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, and Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr have all endorsed the bill.
The U.S. needs a holistic strategy comparable to China's clear attack. Congress grabbing the low-hanging fruit to better fund rip-and-replace is a great start. Once it is the law, let's hope Congress can hammer out a bipartisan agreement to ban TikTok as well.
We have the tools and the political will to thwart the threat. It's time we started using them.
Joel Thayer is president of the Digital Progress Institute and an attorney based in Washington, D.C. The Digital Progress Institute is a nonprofit seeking to bridge the policy divide between telecom and tech through bipartisan consensus.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
