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The way we view national security today must change. For a long time, we have looked at war through a single perspective that is separate from daily life. The comfort of the two oceans, the two friendly borders, and our belief in an invincible place have created lax thoughts when it comes to protecting the republic.

Since the First World War, the U.S. military has been the guardian of freedom. This great vanguard used technology and American fighting spirit to lead us through another global conflict and a long and arduous cold war.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States was completely classified as an outstanding superpower. We mistakenly believed that the United States could extend our vision of representative government to other parts of the world. Our belief in our indomitable position caused us to abandon our industrial base and let others prosper like us. This belief brought China into our international society. We mistakenly believe that as China prospers, its people will be free from the ideological control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

However, the international community does not view the United States through its perspective. Our opponent mistaken our kindness for maliciousness.

When the events of 9/11 prompted successive presidential administrations to launch wars against global enemies, as the fighting continued, world support for the movement gradually decreased. We did not reconsider our approach, but continued to trek.

We spent trillions of dollars, lost our industrial base, and forgot to stick to the American dream. We are spending money in the Middle East, and the CCP has spent trillions of dollars in artificial intelligence and other fields to build infrastructure, industrial foundations and technological advantages.

Chinese officials accepted our proposal, improved their status, improved their ideological control over the population, and then began the process of strategically disbanding the United States. Today, the CCP has formed a global economic system that excludes the United States and other democracies unless they are in the CCP’s interests. The “Belt and Road” initiative involves dozens of countries, ensuring that China has a leading position in international forums such as the United Nations and the World Bank. This is not a secret agenda. The Chinese have already told our political leaders about this.

The CCP has been implementing the firm and brilliant long-term political war strategy formed during the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese government has used the Internet that we have built and the peace we have created, and has made use of globalization. Instead of using Western-style warfare, it used cunning and manipulative tools—money and information—used to tie the Chinese people into a subtle and oppressive embrace. These tools exploit human weakness, fear, and greed. Thanks to Silicon Valley's technology, the CCP has used these tools on a global scale.

The party's influence extends far beyond China's borders. The CCP uses its economic power and carefully nurtured relationships to inspire the American corporate sector and influence our political process.

Apps — most of which are based on technology stolen from Silicon Valley startups — such as WeChat, can monitor and influence Chinese people inside and outside China. Others, such as TikTok, perform similar functions to English-speaking people. The combination of the data collected from these applications—and the CCP’s IT-based totalitarian nature—ensures that China collects the most data of any country in the world. In a feat, Li Kaifu, an artificial intelligence expert and writer, likened China to the "data-based Saudi Arabia."

China's goal of becoming the most powerful country in artificial intelligence and using this advantage to establish a dictatorship-friendly world order is in sharp contrast with the goals of the Atlantic Charter achieved by Churchill and Roosevelt during World War II. The rule of law and respect for civil liberties in the United States have suddenly become an obvious strategic disadvantage, forcing even staunch democracies to seek alternatives and slowly eroding the freedoms enshrined in the constitution.

Therefore, the military weapons used by the United States as a shield against tyranny have become a symbol reminiscent of a once great country, just like the Maginot Line.

So the question is, how does the United States survive?

We do what we do best: we innovate. We survive by building a new future based on freedom and building on an interconnected digital world. We rebuild our once prosperous industrial base and free the United States from the influence and shackles of the CCP’s global supply chain. We protect American data from being mined and used by creating new digital democratic standards. We promote the protection of critical infrastructure. Of course, we protect the strength and potential of future generations by educating children in science and technology.

On this battlefield, we are not facing bombs and bullets. We are struggling with 1 and 0, the dollar and influence. Americans, like those who power the foundation of the defense industry, must use the tools of industry, science, technology, and engineering. We must fire the American forge, but it is designed for the new digital age.

We need to boldly create a new world in which data is protected like the private space in our own home. In this new era, encryption has become as powerful in protecting freedom as the last gun that led to the Second Amendment. On this new battlefield, every citizen shoulders this responsibility.

We now choose how to coexist with technology that is supposed to create a better world: we will be free together, or we will become slaves together. Retired air force brig. General Robert Spaulding is a former Chinese strategist who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his 26 years of government service, he served on the White House National Security Council, the State Department, and served as a B-2 stealth bomber pilot. He is the author of the book "Invisible War: How China Takes Over When American Elites Are Sleeping" and is currently the CEO of 5G service provider SEMPRE.

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