Classic Form: A general makes a great show of repairing a main, damaged road to fixate the enemy's attention. While the enemy watches the conspicuous repair work, the army secretly takes a hidden, unguarded path to launch a surprise attack.
Modern Version: Engage in overt, seemingly benign activities like international trade deals, global infrastructure projects, or academic partnerships (the "open road") while covertly embedding surveillance systems, siphoning data and intellectual property, or building strategic dependencies (the "hidden path").
AI-Powered Execution: The "hidden path" is now digital, pervasive, and often invisible to the naked eye. The CCP utilizes advanced technologies under the guise of civilian services. For instance, distributed collaborative flight control methods for near-space platforms can be used to create vast, persistent surveillance networks disguised as benign services like earth observation or emergency rescue. In the software domain, AI-powered network monitoring tools can identify and exploit vulnerabilities in a partner's supply chain, "borrowing" this digital path to exfiltrate data or insert malicious code under the cover of legitimate system updates or third-party integrations.
CCP Application
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Digital Silk Road (DSR): These initiatives are presented to the world as benevolent global development projects aimed at fostering connectivity and prosperity ("repairing the road"). In reality, they are the primary vectors for exporting China's model of technology-enabled authoritarianism and building a global, dual-use infrastructure network. Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE build critical telecommunications networks, smart cities, and data centers in over 150 partner countries, embedding surveillance capabilities and creating long-term technological dependencies that can be leveraged for political and military purposes.
Huawei: The company presents itself as a private-sector telecommunications provider competing in the global marketplace. This is the "open road." The "hidden path" is its deep and legally mandated ties to the CCP and the PLA. Its equipment has been widely alleged to contain backdoors for espionage, and the company has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for racketeering, sanctions evasion, and a decades-long conspiracy to steal trade secrets from American companies, using its commercial presence as a cover for systematic intelligence operations.
TikTok: The app is promoted as a harmless entertainment platform for sharing videos ("the road"). Underneath this facade, its algorithm collects vast amounts of sensitive user data for psychological profiling, and its code serves as a potential vector for spyware and targeted influence operations directed by its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance ("the hidden path").
Collaborators: Foreign governments and corporations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia that accept BRI/DSR projects and Huawei infrastructure in exchange for short-term economic benefits, ignoring the long-term national security risks. Western universities that enter into research partnerships with Huawei and other CCP-linked entities, allowing for the transfer of sensitive technology and intellectual property under the guise of academic collaboration.
Counter: Mandate comprehensive, independent security audits for all foreign-supplied technology deployed in critical infrastructure. Ban opaque supply chains and companies with documented ties to hostile state intelligence services from government contracts and sensitive sectors. Develop and fund Western-led alternatives to the BRI/DSR to provide developing nations with secure, transparent, and sustainable infrastructure options. The "open road" of economic development is being used to lay the "hidden path" of a global surveillance and control grid. This dual-use nature must be recognized and countered at every level.