Classic Form: A powerful state asks for safe passage through the territory of a smaller, friendly state to attack a mutual enemy. After conquering the enemy, the powerful state turns around and conquers the state that granted it passage. The "borrowed road" becomes the path to conquest.
Modern Version: Exploit the open systems of the West—its trade networks, educational institutions, capital markets, and technological infrastructure—to build up the CCP's own power. Once sufficient strength is acquired, turn those very systems against their creators to achieve dominance.
AI-Powered Execution: This is the essence of AI-driven infiltration. An AI can identify the path of least resistance into a target's core infrastructure. This could be a loosely regulated academic exchange program, a vulnerability in a software supply chain, or an open-API financial system. The AI then "borrows" this path to systematically exfiltrate data, insert malicious code, or establish a permanent foothold for influence and control. The open nature of the "road" is used to facilitate the covert conquest.
CCP Application: The CCP "borrowed the road" of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to gain access to global markets, which it then used to hollow out U.S. manufacturing through state subsidies and unfair trade practices. It "borrows the road" of American universities, using academic exchange programs to place PLA-affiliated scientists in sensitive labs to poach research and steal intellectual property. It "borrows the road" of global supply chains and academic collaborations to gain access to critical technologies, ostensibly for joint development, but ultimately for its own strategic dominance, often displacing the original partners.
Collaborators: Western bureaucrats and policymakers who advocated for China's entry into the WTO and other global systems, believing that economic integration would lead to political liberalization, but who failed to build in safeguards against exploitation. University administrators who prioritize the revenue and prestige from international collaborations over national security and the protection of intellectual property.
Counter: Reclaim your roads. Do not grant unfettered access to those who seek to undermine the system. Demand strict and verifiable reciprocity in all international agreements. If Western companies cannot operate freely in China, Chinese companies should not operate freely in the West. Secure the "roads" of academia, finance, and technology with robust counterintelligence measures.
Part Five: Infiltration and Collapse (Stratagems 25-30)
This penultimate phase of Total Domain Warfare focuses on the internal decay of the adversary. The stratagems in this section move beyond external probing and sabotage to direct infiltration and the subversion of core institutions. The objective is to hollow out the enemy from within, replacing their sources of strength with weakness and their leaders with proxies, until the entire structure is ready to collapse under the slightest pressure. AI is instrumental in this phase for mapping institutional power structures, identifying key individuals for co-option or removal, and gradually shifting societal norms to facilitate a quiet takeover.