A recent RAND Corporation report questioned whether China’s military—the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) — is even ready for a conventional war. The report highlighted logistical inefficiencies, lack of combat experience, and organizational weaknesses that could hinder China in a traditional military confrontation. If Washington finds the report reassuring, it shouldn’t.

The United States is engaged in the wrong fight.
While policymakers focus on military buildups, aircraft carriers, and troop deployments, China is waging a war that doesn’t require a single soldier, tank, or missile.
This strategy was outlined in 1999, not in secret but in a book written by two Chinese military strategists. It’s called Unrestricted Warfare, and its premise is devastatingly simple: war in the modern age doesn’t require bullets and missiles. It can be waged through economic coercion, cyber infiltration, information control, and technological dominance. The strategists recognized that China could not triumph through conventional means, so it had to resort to more cunning tactics. That doctrine is unfolding in real-time, and America — distracted, complacent, and still clinging to outdated notions of power — fails to fully acknowledge it.
TikTok, WeChat, and the New Front Lines
Consider TikTok. With 170 million users in the U.S. alone, it has reshaped, and continues to reshape, how young people consume information. It’s also a precisely targeted weapon.
While debates rage about banning the app or forcing its sale to a U.S. company, the real issue is being ignored: the algorithm. Even if President Trump succeeds in forcing a sale, the algorithm — the lifeblood of TikTok — remains under Chinese control. That’s what matters. The algorithm determines what people see, what narratives spread, and what conversations are suppressed. (RELATED: The Odd One Out: Trump Delays TikTok Ban)
TikTok has already been caught shaping content to align with Beijing’s interests, from suppressing discussions on ...