Tech is our military’s great strength, but China could make it our Achilles’ heel

Imagine waking up in Pasadena, California to the sound of complete silence. Your AI wake-up alarm of choice is silent. Your iPhone is in SOS mode, but you still can’t make calls on your home network because the internet is dead.

You don’t panic immediately, but then you realize the electricity is off and your water supply is down to your reservoir.

Even though you don’t know it yet–– high above in the coldness of outer space –– the civilian communication satellites that keep you connected have all gone dark, alongside the military satellites intended to protect us.

Meanwhile, 6,799 miles away in Taipei, Taiwan, the People’s Army of China is conducting a massive invasion. You have no idea.

Science fiction? No. It’s a doomsday scenario that is growing more realistic day-by-day. We have already witnessed previews of it in the Middle East.

Israel — first by using explosive pagers to decapitate senior Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon in September 2024, and then again using CCTV security cameras in Tehran to target and kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other regime figures — has demonstrated just how effective asymmetrical hybrid warfare can be in the opening phases of a war.

Consider too just how tech-dependent our military forces have become since the end of the Cold War. Logistics, smart weapons and bombs, guided munitions and geo-positioning, all increasingly supplemented by AI, now form the core of our nation’s military might.

Yet alarmingly, they also represent our Achilles’ heel. While it is not as simple as one “kill switch,” imagine dozens of potential kill switches which, if flipped during war, could be highly disruptive or existentially crippling to the U.S.

Beijing is doubtless watching the U.S. and Israeli modern warfare masterclass in Iran. Unless Chinese President Xi Jinping is completely inept (and he is not), he likely understands that his military cannot compete with the U.S on the battlefield thanks to its superior technology. He surely knows that Chinese air defense systems have utterly failed to stop even a single U.S. aircraft in Venezuela or in Iran.

Given this stark dose of reality, Beijing realizes that if it is to compete with the U.S. militarily, it needs a back door to even the playing field. This is where our technological Achilles’ heel comes in.

We got a chilling glimpse of this potential in 2024, when the Chinese government hacking group Salt Typhoon breached U.S. telecom giants, including Verizon, AT&T and Lumen technologies.

According to U.S. officials, it appeared to be an intel gathering operation. But next time, it could be an effort to crash the internet.

Bear in mind that these types of widespread breaches targeting Telecom companies, banking networks, payment systems, and civilian infrastructure, could severely disrupt daily life and commerce across the U.S. as part of an asymmetrical Chinese strike. This threat — think of it as a soft underbelly — is ongoing and very real.

China could also opt to throw the ultimate “kill switch.” As the NSA warned last August, the China has burrowed into America’s critical infrastructure — power plants, oil pipelines, rail networks, and water systems — likely prepositioning digital booby traps to sabotage U.S. critical infrastructure at a time of Beijing’s choosing.

As devastating as it would be to the homeland, this could also cripple U.S. military logistics, including the software used to move U.S. weapons, munitions, supplies and soldiers.

As Space Force Gen. B. Chance Saltzman ominously warned last May, Beijing is accelerating its ability to put military capacity into orbit. The growing Chinese threat to U.S. civilian and military satellites is not just tech-based but also physical. To disrupt or destroy space-based U.S. targets, China is developing its own direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons.

Beijing is also developing ground-based lasers capable of damaging or destroying U.S. military satellites. We also cannot discount the possibility that Beijing might partner with Russia to deploy a space-based nuclear weapon to blind the U.S. military and civilian populace in the event of war.

Beijing is also perfecting co-orbital grappler satellites — the Shijian-21 has already demonstrated the ability to tow another satellite out of orbit — turning “inspection” missions into potential silent killers.

For now, the U.S. remains the dominant conventional military power, but China is our nation’s pacing threat. U.S. military dominance in Venezuela and Iran has likely bought us some time in Taiwan — we must now use that time wisely and prepare for Beijing’s emerging threat to our civilian infrastructure and military communications, smart weapons and logistics.

Xi is watching. Washington must act before the lights go out for real in Pasadena.

Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014. They are the co-founders of INTREP360 and the INTREP360 Intelligence Report on Substack.

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