Three Faces of the Cyber Dragon: Cyber Peace Activist, Spook, Attacker

Three Faces of the Cyber Dragon: Cyber Peace Activist, Spook, Attacker China’s cyber activities are taking three tracks. They are: peaceful intentions (public opinion actions and a military policy of active defense, depicted as the red dragon); espionage (reconnaissance and the stealing of terabytes of information, the white dragon); and preparation foroffensive actions (based on mobilization preparations and theoretical writings, the blue dragon).

China’s cyber policy has become partly visible to foreign nations through observation, tracking, and inference. The policy appears to have three vectors. The first vector is in the public opinion or “soft power” arena, where China professes to be led by a policy of active defense and cooperation with other nations over cyber issues. The second and most prominent vector is China’s exhibited capability to conduct strong and stealthy intelligence and reconnaissance activities against nation’s worldwide, using the guise of anonymity to hide these efforts. The third vector is the offensive character of China’s cyber strategy. It contains the theoretical backing for preemptive cyber operations against other nations in times of crisis. These three aspects—peace activist, espionage activist, and attack planner—dominate China’s cyber policy. Some are always hidden from viewwhile others are demonstrated daily.

Three Faces of the Cyber Dragon is divided into sections that coincide with these vectors. The book first examines soft power theory, information deterrence concepts, and new organizational developments in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and domestic agencies designed to influence and convince foreign nations of China’s peaceful intentions. The work then takes a look at Chinese espionage activities, to include a brief examination of several short case studies on the topic, such as the Aurora, Night Dragon, and Shady Rat incidents. Finally, the PLA’s cyber offensive character is examined. There are chapters on China’s cyber offensive theory, Blue Army, system sabotage and control theory, system of systems thinking. A final chapter compares Chinese cyber concepts with those in Russia. China’s focus on these three areas of peace activist, espionage activist, and attack planner allow it the flexibility to change and adjust its cyber strategy as needed; and to be ready for future conflicts. The policy appears well grounded in high-level support. Three Faces of the Cyber Dragon attempts to provide context to the unfolding nature of China’s cyber policy, and gives the analyst a more penetrating look into unconsidered, under-“advertised” aspects of Chinese security thinking.

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