A year 2000 Congressional report on the "current and future military strategy of the People’s Republic of China," by the U.S. Secretary of Defense, summarized with:

China’s rapid rise as a regional political and economic power with global aspirations is an important element of today’s strategic environment – one that has significant implications for the region and the world.

However, much uncertainty surrounds the future course China’s leaders will set for their country, including in the area of China’s expanding military power and how that power might be used.

It's common knowledge that China has been pumping large amounts of money into their military for several years now and has been working on some very high tech projects of late. Now it sounds as if China is making a move to be a front runner in the next generation of military warfare. Cyber Warfare!

Remember the shocking episode of the shooting down of an orbiting satellite with a Chinese ballistic missile, back in January of 2007. This came just months after the U.S. announced the United States 8th Air Force would become the new Air Force Cyberspace Command.

This is a serious situation for the U.S. and the entire world. It very well may be the start of a Global Star Wars build up. The building of an anti-satellite shield? A satellite defense system in space? A missile defense system set up in one part of the world to simply take out an incoming or out going missile will not work, because satellites orbit the earth, which means it could be taken out when it is over a particular country.

Chinese Cyberwar Alert!

The Air Force has been tracking aggressive cyber incursions by computer technicians in China, primarily focused toward gathering information on military network infrastructure and American trade secrets, the Air Force's cyber warfare commander said this week.

"China has put a lot of resources into this business," said Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of Air Force Cyberspace Command. "China, at this point, is not interested so much in attack as they are in using the Internet to pull [industrial] data."

"They're interested in doing this in a way that they can be dominant without even having a fight," he added.

A recently-released Pentagon report on Chinese military development said Beijing is crafting an aggressive computer network operations strategy that the People's Liberation Army "sees as critical to achieving 'electromagnetic dominance' early in a conflict."

While his newly-established command is focused primarily on the defense of military information networks, communications nodes and command and control systems by "peer competitors" such as China, Russia and Iran, Elder told reporters during a June 13 breakfast meeting in Washington his cyber warriors don't see much of a threat from terrorist-initiated attacks.

"If you have a terrorist operating on their own they're going to have less capability than if they had nation-state sponsorship," Elder explained. "To seriously disrupt us, you're not going to be able to do this with a 'teenage hacker' capability."

Aside from the defense of Air Force cyberspace from would-be attackers, Elder said his command is focused on developing tactics to render adversaries' computer systems inoperable, dropping cyber bombs on enemy sensors, databases and battle management systems.

"Everything I talk about we're trying to do to an adversary we're trying to defend for ourselves," Elder said.

"We want to go in and knock them out in the first round," he added.

The Air Force formally established Cyberspace Command in November after the Pentagon-crafted Quadrennial Defense Review designated cyberspace as an emerging battlefield where American forces increasingly will have to fight in the future.

The vulnerability of networks and the disruption computer hackers can cause to a country's infrastructure was demonstrated in early May after cyber attacks on a wide range of civilian and government networks in Estonia crippled state-run banks, telecommunications companies and news organizations for weeks.

Estonian government officials allege the attacks were launched from state-owned networks in Russia, though the Kremlin denies they had anything to do with the computer assault. But the accusation raises questions about how Elder's command should respond to similar attacks against Air Force cyber infrastructure.

The service is working to develop doctrine on how to defend - and counter-attack - cyber adversaries who can potentially shield their identities or seek cover in networks that have no knowledge of the attack.

"We are looking to provide very precise effects - you want to minimize collateral damage," Elder said. "Would a civilian target be a legitimate target? Generally ... you don't go after civilian targets."

The Air Force has instituted security procedures to ensure individual workstations can't serve as gateways for an adversary into military networks, an effort Elder hopes will prompt Airmen to "recognize that this is not a safe neighborhood."

The Cyberspace Command has already begun to build its cadre of cyber warriors, drawing upon the nearly 45,000 Airmen already tasked with information technology-related duties in the service.

Air Force instructors will keep an eye out during initial training for potential cyber warriors to fill out the ranks, and Elder intends to establish a viable career path for his Airmen in hopes of keeping Cyberspace Command strong in the future.

"We're trying to get someone trained who can work on a production line who's an expert on doing their part, and over time you expand that," Elder said. "It's going to be really critical for us to be able to retain these people into continuing in the force."

ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS - Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2007

UPDATE: Aug. 29, 2007 - Chinese see military dependence on computers as weakness

UPDATE: Sept. 3, 2007 - Chinese military hacked into Pentagon

UPDATE: Sept. 4, 2007 - Pentagon: Chinese military hacked us