China’s use of AI, biometrics pose significant, persistent threats, DOD says

Advancements in AI and biometrics by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) pose significant risks to global security, particularly to the United States and Western nations, according to an unclassified report from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

The nearly 200-page DOD report to Congress, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, details how the PRC’s strategic integration of AI and biometric technologies into national security, military modernization, and global influence operations threatens U.S. and Western security.

The report warns that “PRC leaders … power to shape world events continues to grow, presenting ‘new strategic opportunities’ to create an environment favorable for PRC interests and national rejuvenation.” The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) defines “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” as a state in which the PRC is “prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.”

National rejuvenation, however, DOD emphases, “requires the PRC to ‘take an active part in leading the reform of the global governance system’ since many rules and norms were established, in the PRC’s view, during a time of PRC weakness and without the PRC’s consultation and input.”

Mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, the report highlights the intersection of technological innovation and global security challenges stemming from China’s ambitions.

The report charts the course of the PRC’s national, economic, and military strategy, offering insights into the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) strategy, current capabilities, and activities, as well as its future modernization goals. DOD said the report “illustrates the importance of meeting the pacing challenge presented by the PRC’s increasingly capable military.”

The report ominously warns that the “PRC’s longstanding national strategy is to achieve ‘the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ by 2049,” and that “this strategy determinedly pursues political, social, economic, technological, and military development to increase the PRC’s national power and revise the international order in support of the PRC’s system of governance and national interests.”

The PRC views AI as being pivotal to its future warfare capabilities and global influence. According to DOD, “The PRC aims to overtake the West in AI R&D by 2025 to become the world leader in AI by 2030. The PRC has designated AI as a priority, national-level S&T development area and assesses that advances in AI and autonomy are central to ‘intelligentized warfare,’ the PRC’s concept of future warfare.”

This strategy includes leveraging AI to enhance cyber operations, such as reconnaissance, deepfake generation, misinformation campaigns, and state-sponsored hacking to acquire a waterfront of sensitive information, including personal data that it can use to blackmail and coerce targeted individuals. DOD says, “the PRC presents a significant, persistent cyber-enabled espionage and attack threat.” Conversely, DOD says the CCP Party Congress has “stressed the CCP’s need to prevent digital penetration, sabotage, subversion, and separatism activities from external actors.”

All of these tools support the PRC’s broader approach to what it calls “cognitive domain operations,” which DOD says are aimed at manipulating perceptions and disrupting adversaries’ decision-making processes. The report warns that deepfakes are a low-cost but effective means for shaping narratives and sowing discord.

Indeed. DOD says the PRC sees synthetic media as an aspect of “cognitive warfare” and calls for the use of emerging technologies such as AI and big data to enhance operations, including the production and use of deepfakes.

DOD says, “PLA researchers have been interested in developing this technology since 2011 when National University of Defense Technology researchers proposed using audio-visual technology to imitate voices of foreign senior political and military leadership to mislead adversaries and shape their decision-making process. The researchers identified what they called ‘voice information synthesis technology’ as a key enabling technology to accomplish this, indicating the development of underlying technologies used in deepfakes.”

In 2018, PLA researchers also found that the PLA needed to improve other AI techniques such as deep learning and natural language processing to employ voice information synthesis technology to spread content online. In 2020, elements of the PLA reportedly created a deepfake to mislead the U.S. public.

“The PLA has identified that using deepfakes presents the PLA with a low cost and quick-to-develop capability to shape the information environment with a low threshold for use in operations,” DOD warned.

Under its Military-Civil Fusion initiative, the PRC seeks to integrate civilian and military innovation ecosystems to develop cutting-edge AI-enabled military capabilities. DOD says, “Beijing views the integration of military and civilian institutions as central for developing AI-enabled military capabilities and has established military-civilian R&D centers and procured commercially developed AI … to ensure PLA access to cutting-edge AI technologies.”

The report highlights the PRC’s global leadership in specific AI applications, including facial recognition and natural language processing. Chinese companies, which dominate these fields, are producing domestically designed AI chips and exploring next-generation semiconductor technologies. While still reliant on foreign capabilities for advanced semiconductor fabrication, the PRC is working to close these gaps through industrial policies and massive R&D funding.

DOD says the “PRC is prioritizing the development of AI-enabled capabilities because of its belief that AI is leading to the next revolution in military affairs. To actualize the level of AI integration that the PLA is envisioning, Beijing recognizes the need to leverage developments from across its commercial and academic sectors. By 2030, the PLA expects to field a range of ‘algorithmic warfare’ and ‘network-centric warfare’ capabilities operating at different levels of human-machine integration. CCP leaders believe AI and machine learning will enhance information, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.”

The PLA and other PRC defense organizations “have … used public purchasing platforms to improve military access to civilian AI research and capabilities in areas such as AI-enabled … image and object recognition,” DOD said.

DOD added that “the PLA’s ‘core operational concept,’ Multi-Domain Precision Warfare, is intended to leverage a command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance network that incorporates advances in big data and AI, what the PLA calls the ‘network information system-of-systems’ to rapidly identify key vulnerabilities in the U.S. operational system and then combine joint forces across domains to launch precision strikes against those vulnerabilities.” This includes vulnerabilities in U.S. government and private sector information collection and storage systems.

Domestically, China has integrated biometric and AI technologies into a comprehensive surveillance apparatus. Facial recognition systems, a core component of this infrastructure, are employed to monitor and control its population, including within the Social Credit System. DOD warns that these technologies are particularly invasive in regions like Xinjiang and Tibet, where they are used to suppress ethnic and religious minorities.

Internationally, the PRC exports these technologies through initiatives like the Digital Silk Road, a subset of the Belt and Road Initiative. By providing surveillance systems to developing countries, China fosters strategic dependencies while promoting its authoritarian governance model. Critics argue that these exports facilitate repression and expand Beijing’s surveillance influence globally.

The deployment and proliferation of PRC-made biometric and AI technologies carry profound ethical and geopolitical consequences. Domestically, they enable unprecedented social control, raising concerns about human rights abuses. Internationally, these technologies risk normalizing authoritarian practices, undermining democratic norms, and facilitating state-led oppression in adopting countries.

The dominance of Chinese firms in these industries also raises concerns about technological sovereignty. Nations relying on PRC technology may face risks of espionage or political coercion, as Beijing could exploit vulnerabilities or backdoors in these systems.

Additionally, by controlling vast repositories of biometric data, the PRC could exploit this information for strategic purposes, DOD warned U.S. lawmakers. This includes leveraging data gathered through international collaborations or stolen via cyber espionage. Such data provides insights into population behaviors and vulnerabilities, which could be weaponized in geopolitical conflicts.

To mitigate these risks, nations have implemented various countermeasures, including restricting Chinese-made surveillance equipment and diversifying critical supply chains to reduce dependencies on PRC technologies. Efforts are also underway to establish global standards for the ethical use of AI and biometrics. The international community must address regulatory gaps to ensure innovation is directed toward constructive ends while preventing misuse.

China’s advancements in AI, biometrics, and facial recognition highlight a dual-edged narrative of technological progress and global security risks. While these technologies offer potential benefits, their integration into the PRC’s surveillance state and military ambitions raises significant alarms.

Addressing these risks requires a concerted international effort to promote transparency, establish ethical standards, and reduce dependencies on Chinese technology. Failure to act could solidify the PRC’s influence in shaping the future of these transformative technologies, with profound implications for global stability and governance.

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Article Topics

big data  |  biometrics  |  China  |  deepfakes  |  Department of Defense  |  facial recognition  |  military  |  synthetic data  |  U.S. Government  |  United States