How China will use cyber warfare to leapfrog in military competitiveness

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) may be a global power economically but its military lacks force projection beyond the Asia Pacific region. Its traditional military hardware is one to three generations behind the US and Russia. In light of these deficiencies it is probable that cyber warfare will provide China with an asymmetric advantage to deter aggression from stronger military powers as they catch up in traditional military capabilities. Cyber warfare would also allow China to leapfrog by means of technology transfer and exploiting adversary weaknesses. This investigation will address three primary questions: What is China’s current military capability? How would cyber warfare allow China to seriously advance its strategic abilities? And what is the evidence that China is headed in a cyber warfare direction?