🚨 NEW RESEARCH — The ability of China’s militia forces to support the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) across all domains is likely improving. My latest explores war-oriented militia training reforms since 2018 1/x (link and key findings below)


Under the Central Military Commission’s (CMC) leadership, authorities have reoriented militia forces toward wartime needs over emergency response, and are working to improve militia training facilities, participation, realism, jointness, eval., etc. recordedfuture.com/research/china…

🚨 NEW REPORT: My latest with @zoehaver reveals how China will use, and is preparing to use, cyber coercion & warfare to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan from the perspective of authoritative Chinese sources and real-world behavior. bit.ly/3VjLQd1

A thread 👇 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) textbooks & other sources, gov/mil/intel/societal activities, and known cyber ops demonstrate the party-state has the strategic thought, force development pathways, and capability to execute peacetime and wartime cyber campaigns targeting Taiwan

A recently declassified National Intelligence Council assessment from April 2020 sheds some light on the Chinese Communist Party's approach to big data+AI-enabled targeted propaganda

a short 🧵 w/ excerpts & my own analysis of public data that show this
dni.gov/files/ODNI/doc… "Chinese intelligence officials analyzed multiple US state' [redacted] election voter registration data, ... [long redaction] to conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 US general election"

🚨 NEW REPORT: My latest exposes the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) evolving approach to targeted propaganda based on gender, values, hobbies, & other individual, community, and country-level factors 1/x

Download the report here!: recordedfuture.com/1-key-for-1-lo… The formula of the new model: research + surveys + behavioral data + innovation = tailored products w/ maximum appeal, where innovation is reflected in diversifying propaganda tactics & audience understanding is aided by big data, intl corporations, and advertising tools

🚨 NEW REPORT: My latest reveals new details about China’s defense planning, incl. the full range of military and civilian resources enrolled in military-civil fusion (MCF) efforts as well as the development trajectory of new-type militia forces THREAD

recordedfuture.com/inside-chinas-… Monitoring militia development and the 1000s of national defense mobilization (NDM) resources available to the party-state and military, both in China and around the world, is a prerequisite for adequate policy and defense planning in relation to China

My new report for @RecordedFuture explores how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strives to preempt future opposition by increasing its appeal among young people globally. It illuminates core concepts and debates related to the CCP’s propaganda strategy 1/ recordedfuture.com/elephants-stre… The title, Elephants Must Learn to Street Dance, is the catchphrase used by a current central propaganda official to describe how China’s media industry must evolve. The drawing I posted earlier is my interpretation of this phrase and the report's central theme:

Italian police arrested 6 this week over an allegedly surreptitious drone company acquisition by PRC state-owned enterprises (SOE) via a Hong Kong shell. They released a redacted ownership chart - I’ve filled it in using corporate records 👇

Let’s walk thru this case, but 1st... CRRC may stand out to folks familiar with my past work. My Open Arms report w/ @C4ADS documented CRRC’s role in acquiring UK-based Dynex Semiconductor, moving production to China (*remember this part*), and likely aiding military technology breakthroughs
tinyurl.com/43atvbr8

1/ NEW INVESTIGATION: Remember hearing that a People’s Liberation Army (PLA)-linked cyber group hacked 200 Japanese businesses in 2016? While looking into that allegation, we at Recorded Future found something else you should know: a PLA unit is buying popular antivirus in bulk 2/ So the allegation is PLA Unit 61419 is linked to the advanced persistent threat (APT) actor Tick Group. We need more information to make a firm conclusion there, but circumstantially it makes sense. Both groups have a cyber operations focus on Japan yomiuri.co.jp/national/20210…

Remember hearing that @exceptionpcb makes printed circuit boards (PCBs) for the F-35 & is owned by Shenzhen Fastprint? Let’s take a look into who Fastprint is & how we can investigate them. Spoiler alert: they supply electronics to the PLA! First, the website. Shenzhen Fastprint manufactures integrated circuits (ICs), PCBs & other things in SZ, Guangzhou & Yixing, with subsidiaries in HK, UK & the US. They also admit to producing products for the Chinese military since 2010, though that’s not on the English site…