State and non-state actors employ multiple vectors in gray zone operations, often simultaneously and in mutually reinforcing ways.
Industrial espionage
Adversarial state actors, particularly China, engage in widespread espionage against US industry. China's espionage efforts against the United States represent a persistent and multifaceted threat to national security, economic interests, and technological supremacy.
Cyber operations
While major cyber attacks make headlines, the most damaging digital operations often occur quietly, gradually eroding US advantages through persistent infiltration and data theft. State actors, particularly China and Russia, have moved beyond crude smash-and-grab operations to sophisticated long-term campaigns. These actors plant sleeper backdoors in critical systems, map network vulnerabilities, and quietly position themselves for future operations.
Economic warfare
Today's economic warfare extends far beyond traditional sanctions and trade restrictions, including tactics that can be challenging to defend against because they often exploit legitimate business practices and legal frameworks. Distinguishing between normal commercial activity and strategic manipulation requires careful analysis. Any response must balance protecting critical interests with preserving the open economic system that underpins US prosperity.
Technology transfer
American technological superiority faces unprecedented threats from state-sponsored intellectual property theft, research compromise, and talent recruitment campaigns. China's systematic targeting of US technology represents the most comprehensive intellectual property theft campaign in history, costing the U.S. an estimated $225 billion to $600 billion annually. But the impact extends beyond immediate financial losses: this wholesale transfer of innovation threatens future US military and economic power.
Lawfare and institutional leverage
China increasingly weaponizes the US legal system against American companies, particularly those seeking to protect intellectual property. Chinese entities file questionable patent challenges and copyright claims in US courts, forcing American firms to spend significant resources on legal defense.
Information warfare
Modern information warfare represents a fundamental shift in how nations compete for power and influence. While propaganda and disinformation have existed for centuries, today's digital landscape enables influence operations of unprecedented scale and sophistication.
Recent developments demand a fundamental rethinking of how democracies defend themselves in the information space. The speed, scale, and sophistication of modern influence operations overwhelm conventional approaches to counter-disinformation. We need new defensive capabilities that can match the adaptability and reach of AI-enhanced influence campaigns while preserving democratic values and open discourse.
Institutional subversion
China's strategy to weaken and reshape international institutions represents one of the most sophisticated influence campaigns in history. Unlike crude attempts to subvert organizations through force or bribery, Chinese operators focus on gradually reshaping institutional structures, decision-making processes, and technical standards from within. This patient approach yields lasting strategic advantages while avoiding the backlash that more aggressive tactics might trigger.
