China’s military technology, often stolen from the West, is advancing rapidly to a level where the communist giant can in many areas compete on par with the United States. The Biden Administration’s failed withdrawal from Afghanistan further helps Beijing’s efforts to obtain the latest and most sophisticated Western military weapons and technical information in the field. Despite rendering armored vehicles, aircraft, and other military equipment left behind unusable, the Chinese still can obtain important information through their Taliban partners on how the US builds new weapons and the equipment’s vulnerabilities, according to several military technology experts with knowledge of what was left in country. Patrick Tucker, writing in Defense One, says to “Expect the Chinese military to use this windfall to create—and export to client states—a new generation of weapons and tactics tailored to US vulnerabilities,” according to several experts who spent years building, acquiring, and testing some of the equipment that the Taliban now controls.
The loss goes beyond the Taliban literally obtaining a whole air force. By acquiring the advanced systems through their Taliban partners, China now will be able to pierce the veil of secrecy surrounding how US military technology works. According to Josh Lospinoso of Shift 5, a cyber security company, military vehicles with command, control, and communications equipment that is more penetrable is kept safe through restricted acquisition programs. China can now impact US military operations for years to come as it would be too expensive for the US Government to retool everything left behind in Afghanistan.
The C-130 transport aircraft recently “acquired” by the Taliban can carry tanks, troops, and airdrop as much as 42,000 pounds of military equipment using a short runway. If any of the plane’s electronics were left working or less than fully destroyed, the C-130 could become a fast-track lab for how to build, test, and conduct cyber-warfare against similar equipment owned and operated by the United States. It is long known that China reverse-engineers the technology it steals from the United States. Some of the equipment that DOD provided to Afghanistan is so sensitive that it came with the understanding that the Afghan government must be kept under guard in gated areas to protect American secrets. China doesn’t have to steal it. The gates in Afghanistan are wide open, and China is walking in unescorted. According to Georgianna Shea, an expert in military technologies, once physically acquired there is little the Biden Administration can do to stop China from discovering our vulnerabilities. She believes that is may be accomplished within hours when the hacker is skilled.
This is not unknown to the US Government. The GAO, in its March 2021 High-Risk Series Update, reports that significant attention is “needed to improve the federal government’s management of information technology acquisitions and operations to ensure the nation’s cybersecurity.” When a military system is knocked out US troops on the ground, in general, are not trained in how to fix it. Acquiring our technology could provide China will a clear advantage in the field in the future. It also is likely to improve Beijing’s understanding of US interoperability with our foreign military partners, including NATO Member countries, at a time when the Sino-Russian relationship is united against the Western powers.
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DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.
Photo: C130 (file picture, DoD)