Inside Its Cities, From Outer Space or Via Africa: China’s Covert Strategy for Its Overt Ambition
By N. MacDonnell Ulsch, Contributing Author / March 18, 2025
Mr. Ulsch is the Founder and Chief Analyst of Gray Zone Research & Intelligence—China Series, focusing on China’s technology-driven strategy for global economic supremacy. He advises the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on China’s cyber and technology transfer threats and has led incident investigations in 70 countries as a former Senior Managing Director at PwC’s cybercrime practice.
His research includes the impact of technology transfer on China’s economic strategy, US corporate regulatory risk, China’s supply chain penetration, and Military-Civil Fusion as a cyber threat. His LinkedIn China Polls have over 200,000 views and 25,000 followers.
Mr. Ulsch advises an East African presidential cabinet-in-exile on countering China’s Belt & Road Initiative. Previously, he served as a cyber threat advisor to the CIA, focusing on US cyber adversaries and attacks on the commercial sector and Defense Industrial Base. He also served on the US Secrecy Commission and advised a US presidential campaign on cybersecurity.
He is a Guest Lecturer on Cyber Warfare at West Point and a Research Fellow in the Master’s in Cybersecurity program at Boston College, which he helped establish.
Mr. Ulsch has authored two books: Cyber Threat: How to Manage the Growing Risk of Cyber Attacks and Threat! Managing Risk in a Hostile World. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Institute and serves as an Independent Director of a financial services company, focusing on cybersecurity and privacy issues.
Despite differing viewpoints among U.S. national security leaders and our allies as to whether are at war with China, it almost doesn’t matter. This is because China believes it is at war with us. It is a war unlike others: it is fueled by technology, defense strategies, capital investments in placing such as Africa, competing economic goals, and a race for the sovereignty of space.
Make No Mistake
China has, is and will continue to build a massive, multidimensional war machine that will be centered in mainland China. But it will, more important to global stability, extend deep into its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) territory, one that spans across Eurasia and into Europe. This war machine already has a strong and growing kinetic force. It is vast and very capable cyber-attack and cyber espionage capability.
Technology Capability Unchallenged
One inescapable observation about this New Cold War variant is that it is enabled by an integrated technological capability. Big data, artificial intelligence, the internet of things (IOT), advanced communications, and defensive as well as offensive cybersecurity.
China’s massive cyber machine touches virtually every country in every region of the world. It embraces espionage, disruption, disablement, perception and persuasion on an unprecedented scale. In other words, China has weaponized cyberspace with its target being the United States and Allied Critical Infrastructure. Its goal is to prevail.
Smarter-Cities and space will play an increasingly important role in its vision of power, command, and control.
Intensifying Cyber Attack Readiness
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Strategic Pursuit of Economic Supremacy is on the top of the top-of-mind list. Founded in 1921, the CCP plan is to build a powerful cyber-attack capability, which, some would argue, it has already accomplished.
In addition, China will continue to maximizing its cyber-attack capabilities and its cyber espionage enhancements, with the objective of acquiring targeted intellectual property, chiefly from the United States and Europe.
Using its geopolitical foothold through the BRI infrastructure development program, it will construct a highly distributed cyber-attack force. One means is through embracing Smart City evolving environments.
Smarter Cities Now Smart Cities
China has extensive experience in Smart Cities.
In fact, China has 900 or so Smart City pilot programs on their mainland China. They are likely to be a critical element in its cyber-attack and related ecosystem integration plans.
China’s cyber capability is a means to an end. It intends, by whatever means necessary, to surpass the United States in GDP and become the predominant global economic powerhouse. Of course, such a goal carries a wide range of implications, including China’s emergence as a global military superpower, empowered by a massive integrated technology capability, including its cyber capability.
Developing Nations and China’s Quest for Dominance
The question remains as to the viability and inevitability of China’s expansionist influence operations throughout the developing world, and what role these nations are playing in assisting China’s bold economic and military mission of supremacy.
China’s vision of success is grand. Its strategy will be played out on earth, but also in a highly contested race to dominate space. This includes space initiatives such as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit, some 250 miles and 22,000 miles above earth’s surface, respectively.
Smart City cyber-attack strategies will play a major role!
Eye on China Sentiment Survey and What It Reveals
Our recent Eye on China LinkedIn Poll asked our LinkedIn participants the following question: “Are our current and future assets in space secure from adversary attacks?”
Ninety four percent of respondents said “no” that our assets are not secure.
Closing Thoughts
China is not our friend. Neither is China, strictly, our enemy. At least not in a traditional sense.
China is a tough, determined, intelligent, and purposeful adversary with a strong will and absolute vision that is its destiny. Some in China see a hot war in the future. Others see a future of economic supremacy or, perhaps, economic gloom if China continues to deepen its debt profile. China is also extremely opportunistic. It takes advantage of every opportunity it sees to strengthen its evolving global position: geopolitical, economic, military.
What does this mean for us?
There is no doubt that China is ramping up its war footing. That war footing includes its Information Support Force—its cyber warfare capability, rich in experience, diverse in its targeting of information, distributed in its configuration of cyber-attack coalition, and determined to persevere.
We are not where we should be when considering China’s integrated technology and operational conquests. But we need to get there—but fast.