The American think tank Center for the New American Security (CNAS) recently released a highly provocative report, discussing openly the use of military strikes against Chinese data centers and other “extreme measures” to prevent China from achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) first. This proposition was immediately criticized as “extremely reckless”: framing hypothetical technologies that have not yet been realized as reasons for attacking China’s civilian infrastructure is a direct move towards direct military confrontation.
According to a report by the Hong Kong English media The South China Morning Post on September 4th, Jacob Stokes, deputy director of the Center for Indo-Pacific Security and former staff member of the Obama administration's National Security Council, stated during an online event on Thursday that agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Security Agency should begin evaluating what kind of intelligence is needed to provide a basis for such actions.
In his report, he listed a series of options, including "diplomatic, espionage, cyber, and kinetic measures." These included military strikes against the data centers that train and operate China's AGI systems. He even threatened to carry out "preemptive strikes" before China developed AGI.
Stokes compared this move to “the way policy makers understood nuclear weapons in the past era”, claiming that it aims to “backtrack from science to policy impacts”. The report cited an assessment by the research firm Epoch AI, stating that the United States currently leads China in advanced AI models by “several months”. However, China may achieve “sudden technological breakthroughs” in areas such as robotics and “embodied AI”.
Stokes’ extreme statements have also been questioned in the United States. William Hartung, an arms analyst at the Washington-based non-profit organization “Government Accountability Project”, warned that any attack on Chinese data centers would “risk sparking a hot war between two nuclear powers, which could have tragic consequences for all involved”.
"Hacking based on China's data center future usage possibilities, or impossibilities, is an extremely reckless action."
It is worth noting that Stokes himself acknowledged that the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies “have not organized anything related to obtaining technical secrets through espionage for decades.”
CNAS is a U.S. national security think tank established in Washington in 2007. It has long provided strategic advice on defense, the Indo-Pacific region, and relations with China for the U.S. government, adopting a relatively hardline stance.
Think tank reports do not equal government decisions, but mentioning the idea of “military strikes against Chinese data centers” in public discussions can inherently distort the atmosphere.
China has always advocated that artificial intelligence should be human-centered and beneficial to humanity. Military applications must be under human control. China opposes the politicization and militarization of technology issues. Technological competition is not a reason for declaring war. Some American politicians and think tanks use threats of 'military strikes' and 'espionage activities', which not only seriously violate the basic norms of international relations, but also reveal their dangerous attempts to politicize and militarize technology issues.
