CSET’s Cole McFaul and Sam Bresnick shared their expert analysis in an article published by The Wall Street Journal. The article examines how China’s military is systematically incorporating artificial intelligence into its operations by drawing on civilian universities and private companies as part of its “civil-military fusion” strategy.

McFaul emphasized the scale of China’s ambitions, noting, “Just in this data set, the sheer ambition of what they’re trying to do is surprising. That there’s such a wide range of these technologies speaks to our limited ability to really hammer or constrain China’s military modernization.”

Bresnick pointed to Washington’s tough choices, including whether to boost U.S. investments, expand sanctions on Chinese institutions, or preserve limited cooperation, adding, “There’s a lot of momentum toward the sledgehammer approach because it’s easy.”

The article delves into their latest CSET report, “Pulling Back the Curtain on China’s Military-Civil Fusion“, which draws on 2,857 AI-related defense contract award notices published between January 2023 and December 2024. It find that while China’s legacy defense sector players lead AI-related military procurement, an emerging set of nontraditional vendors and research institutions appears to play a consequential role.

To read the full article, visit The Wall Street Journal.