The Thoughts of We

In these uncertain times are the United States and China headed towards war? Some have raised this question many times, but without any answer. The Chinese leadership has refused to acknowledge the existence of a US military base on its soil, while the US Navy continues to encroach on its waters. This has led many to ask if the United States and China are headed towards war?

Some people have brought up the cyber-warfare issue, citing the Stuxnet virus as an example. In fact it was developed by a Chinese University, which is well known for its high level of technological advancement. However to say that a nation has cyber weapons is to say that they possess the ability to strike out at their enemies using highly sophisticated computerized weapons. It is highly doubtful that such a nation would strike out at the United States Navy with cyber weapons, especially considering how advanced most modern day naval vessels are. Therefore are the US and China headed towards cyberwarfare?

It is hard to say without certainty. One of the challenges for a military enthusiast like myself is that every nation on Earth has a nuclear weapon of some sort. So there is no definitive answer to this question, only an assumption. Some people believe that a nuclear power can be stopped or contained, but it is nearly impossible to prevent them from attaining nuclear weapons once they do. This is what many people call “containing” a country, or preventing it from having nuclear power.

If a nation which wishes to have a nuclear weapon does not have one, then they cannot attack anyone with that weapon. Is this what the Chinese want? Obviously not. If a nation attacked your cyber network in cyberspace, then you could simply deactivate their nuclear weapons, or otherwise disrupt their operation. If this happens, you might disrupt their ability to launch cyber strikes on US military bases in the future.

What this means is that the Chinese would much prefer to avoid a cyber attack, or at least to mitigate the damage such an attack might cause. They would therefore likely try to prevent the infiltration of hostile viruses into their cyber system, and/or would attempt to stop the attackers before they could do any harm. Since cyber attacks are rising constantly and are capable of hurting or crippling even the best-protected systems, it would seem that the Chinese government is gearing up for a cyber war, and it may already be in motion.

How do you think the US feels about the Chinese trying to prevent or mitigate cyber attacks? Do you think they would try to nip this in the bud? Do you think that a nuclear weapon is the best way to prevent a cyber attack? Do you think that the Chinese leadership is serious about preventing the infiltration of viruses into their systems? If so, will they continue to do so, and if so, why?