The CCP’s Development of Artificial Intelligence: Impact on Future Operations

The development of artificial intelligence and related technologies has a potential serious impact on the industrial development and the military operations. The Chinese Communist Party has also classified this area as a key direction of the future development, hoping that in this new wave of military affairs innovation, under the absolute superiority of economic and military affairs, China could surpass the United States in one fell swoop, changing the world situation in which the United States is the only military superpower since the end of the Cold War. In the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping clearly stated that it should accelerate the development of military intelligence and strengthen the joint combat capability of the network information system, including the R&D of the innovative weapons and equipment. As Xi Jinping took over the presidency of China in 2013, he initiated the "dream of strong army". In the future, artificial intelligence is bound to be an important part of the CCP's military modernization, and it is also a foresighted preparation for winning the next war. At present, most of the CCP’s research on military development in terms of artificial intelligence tends to be on hardware devices, such as automated combat vehicles, autonomous drones and remote-controlled submarines. These related technologies rely heavily on the mechanical engineering and traditional R&D. The CCP intends to combine the development of military science and technology with the advanced weapons as a means of "killer" conception for future regional wars against the United States and other major powers. In this concept, the Communist Army will carry out paralytic asymmetrical attacks to its potential enemies. In the past, the "killer" weapons may be the attack missiles that attack large ships, but now they may include a new generation of artificial intelligence weapons that use the big data, the Internet of Things, or the cloud computing. In the face of the development of the CCP’s artificial intelligence militarization, not only we must concern about its current major developments, but also have to analyze the motives behind it, so that we can make correct judgments in the future operations to block the CCP’s media campaign and arms deterrent. This is the focus worthy of our urgent attention.