Why We Are Losing the Cognitive War with China
Why We Are Losing the Cognitive War
with China
We are
badly losing the ongoing Cognitive War with China, as we’ve seen their power,
influence, and reach expand exponentially over the last five decades. China has
badly outmaneuvered us on multiple fronts (economic, political, military,
social, etc.). Unfortunately, this fact remains true despite multiple warnings over
a decade, including the book The Cognitive War – Why We Are Losing and How
we Can Win in 2023. But why?
The recent
discovery of a second illegal bioweapons lab in California with ties to China, three
years after the first (I called it a depot) was accidentally discovered, gives us
a clue. There are many others that I will highlight shortly. A first step to
winning this war is to acknowledge 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, where in fact, it crosses any and all functions. This lack of clarity
is captured in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) 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 Department of War, which offers primarily kinetic solutions,
to define a war taking place in cognitive domain? The paradigm of cognitive war
blows up preconceived industrial age cultures, and structures as we try to put
a square peg (industrial age solution) into a round hole (information age
problem).
I define Cognitive
War as primarily an ideological war, between tyranny and freedom, control and
independence, subjugation, and democracy. It is a war fought primarily in the
cognitive domain using strategies which 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 this war with China
badly.
There are
multiple examples of how badly we are losing this war. In the United States of
America today, we have CCP Illegal police stations, their Thousand points of
light bribery, compromise, and corruption efforts. We see their United Front operations
influence mayors, governors, business owners, and students. It is estimated
that China steals $225-$600 billion “per year” in intellectual property. They
have used TikTok and other social media to conduct surveillance, targeting,
disinformation, etc. China controls the majority of rare earth minerals and
produces the majority of critical antibiotics. They have infiltrated spies into
varied federal, state, and local governments. There are annually 200-300,000
Chinese national students in our country. During the Biden administration an
estimated100,000 military aged illegals/men entered our country. How many other
SIM card infrastructure attack platforms, like the one discovered in NY city, or
illegal bioweapons labs like those in California, exist? They have introduced
invasive species and stolen agricultural secrets. The list is endless and non-kinetic,
covering legal, to economic, political, education, agriculture, governance, etc.
Since 1999
China’s cognitive war expanded its impact by using unrestricted warfare tactics
and techniques to leverage any means (functional areas) necessary to continually
outmaneuver us across multiple fronts both globally and here on American soil.
The
current National Security Strategy is a step in the right direction. To start
winning this war, we must understand there are no limits to the means we must
apply. The Department of War is not the right lead, no one department is. We
must look to forge a new foundation for national security that enables the
alignment of expertise, authorities, capabilities, and capacities across all national
functional areas (government and private sector) to enable defense and drive
proactive offensive operations.
We must
also remember the cognitive war is both global and domestic. Here in America,
the radical left is also successfully conducting and winning this war. Until
our leaders understand this war, and overhaul our current national security
factory floor, it will get much worse globally and domestically!
• 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.
A version
of this article appeared in the Washington Times on 9 Feb digital, 10 Feb print,
I highly recommend as well.
America losing the cognitive war
with China | Washington Times
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/feb/9/america-losing-cognitive-war-china/
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