Classic Form: Create a feint or diversion to mislead the enemy about your true objective. Draw their attention and forces to one point (the "East") while launching your real attack on another, unguarded point (the "West").
Modern Version: Use high-visibility, headline-grabbing actions—diplomatic summits, aggressive military posturing, or the launch of a popular consumer app—as a distraction, while covertly executing more significant strategic operations like cyber infiltration, intellectual property theft, or the establishment of critical infrastructure footholds elsewhere.
AI-Powered Execution: An AI decision agent coordinates a multi-domain feint. It uses generative AI to create a high-volume, convincing distraction on social media (the "East"), perfectly tailored to the cognitive biases of the target audience to maximize its attention-grabbing effectiveness. Simultaneously, the agent directs quiet, targeted cyber-attacks against a less-guarded but more valuable target, such as a financial clearinghouse or a defense contractor's database (the "West"). The AI ensures the timing and nature of the two operations are perfectly decoupled to avoid detection.
CCP Application: The CCP frequently flies fighter jets into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone, generating international headlines and focusing global attention on a potential kinetic conflict (the "East"). While the world watches the skies over the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state-owned companies are quietly buying controlling stakes in strategic ports in Latin America and Africa, building a global logistics network that can be used for military purposes (the "West"). TikTok serves as another perfect example: it draws the world's attention with viral dances and entertainment, while its code quietly exfiltrates user data and its algorithm subtly shapes the political and social consciousness of a generation.
Collaborators: Western journalists, analysts, and influencers who focus exclusively on visible, kinetic threats and ignore the quieter, more insidious forms of strategic competition. Newsrooms that chase clicks and headlines rather than conducting deep investigations into complex issues like supply chain dependencies or financial infiltration.
Counter: Develop a multi-domain intelligence and analysis capability that tracks and correlates seemingly unrelated events. Follow the quiet trails—cyber activity, patent filings, trade patterns, infrastructure investments—not just the loud ones. Educate policymakers and the public on pattern recognition, teaching them to see the whole board, not just the piece that is making the most noise. The CCP consistently wins where its adversaries are not looking.
Part Two: The Engineered Illusion: AI-Powered Manipulation and Control (Stratagems 7-12)
This section analyzes the stratagems focused on fabricating reality, subverting trust, and exploiting internal divisions. These tactics are foundational to Cognitive Warfare, which aims to disrupt how an adversary thinks, rendering rational decision-making impossible. AI serves as the ultimate force multiplier, transforming these ancient deceptions into scalable, automated weapons of mass confusion. The objective is to create an environment where truth is unknowable, institutions are untrustworthy, and society is too fragmented to mount a coherent defense.