China Just Escalated Its AI War Against America

The Chinese Communist Party’s aggression toward America’s critical infrastructure systems hit a new and alarming level in recent weeks.

The regime has already infiltrated the homes and communities of Americans through Chinese technology with extensive spyware, but that operation was child’s play. According to Anthropic, China has now weaponized artificial intelligence to automatically carry out cyberattacks, with the goal of crippling systems essential to everyday function.

“In mid-September 2025, we detected suspicious activity that later investigation determined to be a highly sophisticated espionage campaign. The attackers used AI’s ‘agentic’ capabilities to an unprecedented degree—using AI not just as an advisor, but to execute the cyberattacks themselves,” Anthropic details.

“The threat actor—whom we assess with high confidence was a Chinese state-sponsored group—manipulated our Claude Code tool into attempting infiltration into roughly thirty global targets and succeeded in a small number of cases. The operation targeted large tech companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies, and government agencies. We believe this is the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention.”

The Department of Homeland Security describes critical infrastructure as infrastructure that is “necessary to maintain normalcy in daily life. Transportation, commerce, clean water and electricity all rely on these vital systems.”

Threats to this infrastructure open up an entirely new escalatory category of warfare strategy, bringing a dire need for upgraded AI cyber defense and for the U.S. to dominate the space immediately. 

According to Anthropic, China’s attack “relied on several features of AI models that did not exist, or were in much more nascent form, just a year ago” and was a “highly sophisticated espionage operation.”

The development of AI for good is moving at a rapid pace. President Donald Trump has made winning the AI race a top administration priority, revealing a promising AI Action Plan in July. National security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared America winning the AI race “non-negotiable.” 

But AI is also moving at breakneck speed for nefarious use. This is China’s priority as it continues to wage its cold war on the United States—with the ultimate goal of holding Americans hostage in a crisis of their creation. Congress, states, and local jurisdictions are behind, leaving our critical infrastructure defenses vulnerable.

In addition to targeting America’s largest critical infrastructure systems, the Chinese Communist Party is locked in on vulnerable local facilities, stretching the capacity of the FBI and other federal agencies to thwart its attacks. It is targeting water systems, electric grids, gas plants, ports, coal plants, internet connections, critical communication networks, stock market manipulation, mass transportation systems, and much more. A CCP-induced crisis in a small town or a big city will take up resources and cause distraction—and our response will be monitored closely. 

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of War must develop a purely offensive plan to combat the weaponization of AI—not simply a defensive plan that can only operate once the threat is already inside our systems. 

China is weaponizing AI with plans to use it against American civilians. America needs a comprehensive plan to keep China’s AI attacks and infiltration out of our critical infrastructure systems.

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