U.S. military leaders need to establish “a cyber service academy” to train the corps of service members needed to fight China’s “digital authoritarianism,” according to a senior Senate Democrat.
“Congress should establish a new federal service academy similar to our other military service academies, with the specific aim of developing the future of our technology force,” a report by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez of New Jersey proposed. “In addition to providing students a four year undergraduate education, the academy shall prepare students to become future military leaders in key digital and emerging technology fields, including robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity.”
The formation of a cyber training center alongside traditional military academies such as West Point underscores the bipartisan agreement that the U.S.-China competition will continue over the long term in the realm of emerging technologies. Menendez criticized President Trump’s response to some of these threats, but his report diagnosed many of the same threats that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other Republicans have identified when warning about how Beijing uses internet technology as a tool of domestic repression and geopolitical power.
“The resulting effect of China’s domestic expansion of digital authoritarianism is an evermore politically repressed society, particularly for political dissidents and ethnic minorities,” Menendez said Tuesday afternoon. “China has been exporting its digital authoritarianism and its tools and tactics across the world in a number of ways.”
China has targeted developing countries around the world as customers for its surveillance equipment, the report emphasized, raising the possibility that the technology could become a tool for shaping the political futures of those nations and creating a coalition of authoritarian clients for Beijing.
“China’s developing digital authoritarianism has not only strengthened the CCP’s rule over 1.4 billion Chinese people, it has also created systemic competition with the United States and other democracies,” China Digital Times editor Xiao Qiang said during a discussion of the report.
A long-term victory in such a competition depends on Western technological advances, the report suggests — hence the need for a service academy as well as civilian research. The report calls on lawmakers to “increase federal spending on STEM programs” significantly through the Pentagon and the Education Department, along with increased investment in the 5G wireless technology that government-backed companies such as China’s Huawei have pioneered as part of Beijing’s effort to dominate next-generation telecommunications.
“These endeavors underline that China understands the importance of the digital domain to its domestic political stability and economic, political, and military rise, and wants to lead the globe in shaping the future of the digital world,” the report said. “It further demonstrates that China is executing a long-term plan to dominate the digital space.”
