America is losing the cognitive war with China - Beijing exploits ideology, academia, technology and chaos inside the U.S.

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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/feb/9/america-losing-cognitive-war-china/

Article appeared in Washington Times 10 February 2026. Copyright © 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.

illustration by Linas Garsys 

America losing the cognitive war with China - Beijing exploits ideology, academia, technology and chaos inside the U.S.

By Edward Haugland - Monday, February 9, 2026

OPINION:

We are losing the ongoing cognitive war with China — badly.

Beijing’s power, influence and reach have expanded exponentially over the past five decades. It has outmaneuvered us on multiple fronts (economic, political, military, social, etc.). Unfortunately, this fact remains true despite multiple warnings over a decade. But why?

The recent discovery of a second illegal bioweapons lab in California with ties to China, some three years after the first, gives us a clue.

A first step to winning this war is to acknowledge that our national security leaders remain unaware, unprepared and unarmed to fight it. It is ill-defined by many analysts and functional experts who wrongly link the definition of cognitive war to a specific function, when, in fact, it crosses any and all functions. This lack of clarity is captured in the Senate Armed Services Committee report for fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.

“The committee notes that the People’s Republic of China, for example, is actively engaged in developing what it terms ‘informatized warfare’ and ‘intelligentized warfare’ with a strong emphasis on cognitive domain operations, involving the integration of information warfare across military and civilian sectors and viewing information as a critical domain for achieving strategic advantage in great power competition. … The committee believes this definitional ambiguity contributes to a lack of strategic clarity.”

I agree, but why are we asking the Defense Department, which offers primarily kinetic solutions, to define a war in the cognitive domain? The paradigm of cognitive war blows up preconceived industrial age cultures and structures as we try to put a square peg into a round hole.

I define cognitive war primarily as an ideological war between tyranny and freedom, control and independence, and subjugation and democracy. It’s one fought primarily in the cognitive domain using strategies that apply various ways (e.g., ideology, religion, issues) and means (e.g., academic, economic, agriculture, social, military, etc.) to influence.

In its most basic form, it is a war between good and evil. Cognitive war can and does include irregular warfare and kinetics.

In simple terms, there are no limits, boundaries or rules in conducting cognitive warfare. The only unifying factor is the impact on “influencing the cognitive domain” (our will, mental capacity, cognitive ability and capabilities to act). Until we figure this out, we will continue to lose to China.

There are multiple examples of how badly we are losing this war. In the U.S. today, there are illegal Chinese Communist Party police stations. We see their “United Front” operations influencing our mayors, governors, business owners and students. It is estimated that China steals $225 billion to $600 billion a year in intellectual property.

China has used TikTok and other social media to conduct surveillance, targeting and disinformation campaigns. It controls the majority of rare earth minerals and produces the majority of critical antibiotics. It has infiltrated spies into varied federal, state and local governments.

Each year, the U.S. has approximately 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese national students. During the Biden administration, an estimated 100,000 military-age illegals/men entered our country. How many other SIM card infrastructure attack platforms, such as the one discovered in New York City, or illegal bioweapons labs exist?

China has introduced invasive plant species and stolen agricultural secrets. The list is endless and non-kinetic.

Since 1999, China has used unrestricted warfare tactics and techniques to continually outmaneuver us across multiple fronts globally and on American soil.

The current National Security Strategy is a step in the right direction. To start winning this war, we must understand that there are no limits to the means we must apply. The Defense Department is not the right lead; no one department is. We must forge a new foundation for national security that aligns expertise, authorities, capabilities and capacities across all national functional areas, public and private, to support defense and drive proactive offensive operations.

We must also remember that the cognitive war is both global and domestic. In America, the radical left is also successfully conducting and winning this war. Until our leaders understand this war and overhaul our national security factory floor, it will get much worse.

• Edward Haugland is the author of “The Cognitive War” and a leading national expert in this field. He is an award-winning CIA analyst and retired Defense Department intelligence executive, as well as a U.S. Air Force veteran, with more than four decades of service in national security across multiple executive branch departments and agencies.

 Edward L. Haugland, © 2026, all rights reserved.