Hooked! #7: I love a parade (but what does it mean?)

Hello! 

Watching footage from the Conference to Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War (otherwise known as the military parade held in Beijing earlier this month), I initially thought perhaps I was watching an AI-generated video – it was so smooth, so clean, the marchers so in sync. Once I had confirmed it was real, I was struck by the differences between this parade and Trump’s June military parade, which was significantly less choreographed and distinctly backward-looking, with men in Revolutionary War uniforms and a focus on World War II hardware. Despite the robot dogs, Chinese observers saw symptoms of decline. 

China clearly took a different approach, taking the opportunity to debut advanced weaponry and its military’s new Information Support Force, Military Aerospace Force, and Cyberspace Force under the eyes of 27 world leaders and their attendant media. An estimated 50,000 other onlookers attended the event. Equipment on display ranged from unmanned AI bomb defusing systems and autonomous AI drones to heretofore undisplayed elements of a nuclear triad, highlighting their ability to hit, for example, the United States with nuclear missiles from air, land, and sea. And they have robot *wolves*. 

In addition to advanced offensive weaponry, quite a few elements of the show had intelligence-gathering capabilities: unmanned land reconnaissance vehicles, unmanned aquatic vehicles capable of independent target verification, various drones, and equipment for sensing and digital intelligence collection. 

Further signs of Beijing’s technological ambitions could be seen a couple of days earlier at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin. There, as China presented itself as an alternative to a US-led global order, an SCO centre for enhancing cybersecurity and information safety was established, as well as cooperative efforts on the digital economy and cybersecurity and on AI. 

It seems China’s strategists would agree with Andrea Gilli, Mauro Gilli, and Niccolò Petrelli’s recent Binding Hook piece on the importance of data for modern warfare. (Though their parade’s more conventional weaponry shows they haven’t given up on ammo just yet.) The authors argue that the capacity to gather and analyse massive amounts of data is an essential component of modern power, and one that European countries, reliant on US equipment via NATO, have neglected. 

Mixing with Kim Jong Un and Putin in Beijing was one leader from an EU and NATO country, Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, which was interesting in the context of the EU’s recent push for strategic autonomy and growing military ambitions. I regularly bike by the Maaldrift military complex in Wassenaar, where one can glimpse a few decaying tanks, half-heartedly covered with tarps; researching this newsletter, I realised that’s the only Dutch military equipment I’ve ever seen. Although I don’t expect to see a military parade following Leiden Pride through the canals any time soon, projects like the new European Vulnerabilities Database and movements aiming to reduce reliance on US tech and increase ‘cognitive defence’ indicate change on the horizon.

• Charl van der Walt explains why Europe’s new vulnerability database matters more than you think.

• Virtual Routes fellows discuss how governments can defend against cyber threats, including dependence on foreign technology.

• Monica Kello calls for increased measures to defend against digitally enabled Russian subversion.

Until next month,

Katharine Khamhaengwong

Binding Hook Editor

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For more Binding Hook on China:

• China is using cyber attribution to pressure Taiwan: Ben Read shows how China is using attribution of cyber activities to pressure Taiwan.

• State-backed ransomware at the intersection of espionage, sabotage, and cybercrime: The authors of a recent Virtual Routes research report explore diverse state uses of ransomware.

• Provincial governments play an underappreciated role in China’s cyber operations: Joseph Christian Agbagala investigates the role of provincial governments in Chinese cyber operations.