Classic Form: Instead of trying to cool a boiling pot of water from the top, remove the fuel source (the firewood) from underneath. The fire will die, and the water will cool on its own. The principle is to attack the enemy's foundation or source of strength, rather than confronting their strength directly.
Modern Version: Systematically cut off an adversary's access to critical resources—energy, strategic minerals, semiconductor chips, or even social cohesion and trust—to cripple their economy and military capacity without firing a shot.
AI-Powered Execution: AI models are used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of an adversary's entire economy and supply chain to identify the most critical "firewood." This could be a single-source supplier of a key pharmaceutical precursor, a vulnerable node in the energy grid, or a dependency on a specific software platform. AI used for power distribution management can even model how to optimize battery life for its own forces while degrading the enemy's logistical capabilities in a conflict. In the cognitive domain, AI can identify the core institutions that support a society (e.g., free inquiry, trust in media) and then introduce corrosive elements that decay them from within.
CCP Application
Control of Critical Minerals: The CCP has systematically established a near-monopoly on the mining and processing of rare earth elements, which are essential for modern defense technology, electric vehicles, and electronics. By controlling over 90% of the global refining capacity, Beijing can threaten to "remove the firewood" from the entire Western high-tech and defense industrial base, using this chokehold as a powerful tool of economic coercion.
Undermining Social Trust: Through sustained information operations, the CCP seeks to remove the "firewood" of social trust that underpins democratic societies. By amplifying narratives that attack the legitimacy of elections, the credibility of the free press, and the integrity of the justice system, it aims to make effective governance impossible.
Collaborators: Western environmental NGOs that lobby against domestic mining and energy production, inadvertently increasing dependence on CCP-controlled supply chains. Green investment funds that pour capital into Chinese solar and battery companies, further solidifying Beijing's control over the energy transition while American industrial capacity atrophies.
Counter: Rebuild and secure domestic supply chains for all critical resources, from minerals and energy to pharmaceuticals and microelectronics. Onshore or "friend-shore" manufacturing to reduce dependence on an adversary. In the cognitive realm, the counter is to actively defend and rebuild trust in core democratic institutions.