Event
High-Tech
Wars - 14th Annual Foreign Policy Conference
Challenges
to peace and security in times of drones, robots and digital warfare
Berlin, 20. – 21.06.2013
Key Points
Member of the Central
Party School of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee (CCPS), Dr.
Yabin Liang, emphasizes need for
information collection abroad at international
conference in Berlin.
China is using drones only for civil aspects and
monitoring terrorists, mainly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Data protection
must be partially sacrificed in order to protect citizens from attacks.
An open mind
Speakers from various countries talked in Berlin about the
technological change in modern warfare and conflicts with
non-state actors. In the
foreground next to the use of
drones – better known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) – were risks of cyber attacks and asymmetric conflicts. Since it is always
difficult to hear official statements about security-sensitive issues it was even more remarkable to get that open notes of Dr. Liang. He is Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute For
International Strategic Studies (IISS) at the Party School Of The Central
Committee Of The Communist Party Of China (CCPS) in the Haidian District of
Bejing, the premier institution for education and training of officials in
China. Beside other Chinese think tanks the IISS is not so well known in the
media, but nevertheless influential in the Chinese military and intelligence
community, e.g. in the discussion about the North Korean nuclear program.
No money for research
Asked about the use of UAVs Dr. Liang said that China
would have no
sophisticated UAVs. China as a developing
country would learn from Russia and the USA, which research would be observed exactly. Due to limited money the development of high-tech
UAVs would not be possible for China. For the rest it would be interested in a
peaceful development and not in building a threatening weapon system. At least
civil UAVs would be used for supervising harvest and disaster control. Finally
he admitted that China could imagine using UAVs for monitoring terrorist
activities in the northwest of the country. Furthermore he said that – in the
long way – UAVs could be a military instrument for China in the future
strategic environment.
Obviously this is
an understatement, because it is clear that China is working
intensively on the development
of UAVs and might use them since a while.
Already in 2011 the Chinese agencies thought about to use a UAV, equipped with 20
kilograms of TNT, to track and hunt down Naw Kham, chief of the Hawngleuk Militia and a notorious drug dealer in the Golden Triangle, who
killed at large sixteen Chinese sailors in the Mekong river area. In the end
Chinese security agencies didn´t carry out a UAV strike due to technical
reasons and the lack of experience in this area – even though Liu Yujin, the
director of
the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), said the
reason for that would have been the order to catch him alive. China is working intensively on BeiDou, a satellite based
navigation system, which will be used in the future for the navigation of their
UAVs.
Despite the statement of Dr. Liang it is worth to
mention the efforts of the People´s Liberation Army (PLA) to develop UAVs not only
for the ground forces, but for the Navy – e.g. for surveillance of the US fleet
near to the Chinese shore – and the Air Force as well. Therefore China is
building up a military-industrial complex, which includes intensive Research
and Development (R&D). Due to US restrictions of weapons trade China
depends on research to bridge the gap to Western design. The IAI Harpy model,
produced by Israel Aerospace Industries and sold et al. to China, wasn´t
upgraded in 2004 by Israel and so China shows interest in collecting
intelligence about new developments and marketing own systems. In 2012 they
presented the Yi Long, a tactical UAV. For long range missions they deleoped
the Harbin BZK-005 model with a payload of more than 150 kg – which is
definitely useless for monitoring agriculture.
As well as with the NATO forces or Russia UAVs are an
instrument enhancing the Command, Control, Communications, Computers,
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR)structure. But sudden
accidents like the self-immolation of Tibet monks or the reported attacks on
police stations in Xinjiang can hardly be monitored by UAVs: They are used in
situations where evidence as terrorist camps in the outback already exist.
Confronted with this Dr. Liang just said, there are different definitions of
terrorism. Beside this he mentioned very clearly the problems with drug
smuggling in the border region between China and North Korea – which could be a
possible target of UAVs. It is not a farming office, but mainly the General
Staff Department (GSD) Intelligence Department of the PLA (GSD Second
Department), which is interested in collection of military and political
intelligence and in the international developments of UAVs. It is hardly
surprising that in March 2013 Dr. Liang attended a conference in Israel,
sponsored by Sino-Israel Global Network & Academic Leadership (SIGNAL).
According to a reports he was obviously looking there for intelligence related
UAV technology.
Information is free
Even in another panel („Cyberwar and cyberspace – the fifth sphere of
warfare?“)Dr. Liang
spoke frankly about attacks on infrastructure in China, which are causing panic
especially after parties, when people want to drive home – but can´t due to
paralyzed public transport systems. China would be damaged by „unrealistic“
information, which could provoke social unrest. Surprisingly he mentioned as
one positive example Wikileaks because this would have been the starting point
for the Arab spring. In general most attacks would come from non-state actors,
which could hardly be identified. The Chinese government would not conduct
espionage, because today all information would be free and China would be
interested in the free flow of them. States are – in his opinion – like
companies and companies collecting information worldwide. Under this conditions
one couldn´t speak anymore from data loss. There would be many terrorists in
China, conducting attacks and threatening the public, so it would be necessary
to restrict a few civil rights, just to protect them.
Forecast
Dr. Liang´s statement shows the
growing self-confidence of officials, discussing at international conferences.
On one hand it is a signal that China is willing to assume international
responsibility: Beside international anti-terror operations it shows it´s
capability to hunt down enemies of the state outside of it´s border. China
recognized UAVs as useful tools in
military operations and their use is inevitable. The clear statement about
cyber problems shows: Cases like Wikileaks or Snowden are boosting Chinas
position in the discussion about hacking and cyber warfare.
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