China, Britain, and Cognitive Warfare

Documents and publications from the CCP, PLA, NATO and UK's 77th Army Brigade summarize current state of the art

I am constantly amazed by how many social media warriors and alternative media “journalists” are completely unaware of how effectively they are being manipulated by the on-line tactics and strategies of cognitive warfare. Having spent a couple of years now investigating, learning, and teaching about PsyWar, Fifth Generation Warfare, and Cognitive Warfare, I have become acutely aware of these methods - in part because they have been quite effectively deployed on me for three straight years.

For example, the words “controlled opposition” have been linked in the minds of many using social media cognitive warfare methods (including neurolinguistic programming) to my name without ever defining the term or how it applies to me, just as others have been convinced by corporate media that I am just an “anti-vaxxer”. Rather than being a conscientious objector to the failure to comply with bioethical, global regulatory and clinical research norms developed over decades, as well as a truth teller and educator concerning the gene therapy technologies which have been deployed and their associated toxicities. Which is what I am actually guilty of.

I have become convinced that these psychological manipulation methods pose an even greater threat to freedom, sovereignty and humanity in general than the threat posed by the widespread plans to deploy the modified-mRNA technology in every way possible. As an article of faith, I have decided that the most important contribution that I can provide at this point in time is to do everything I can to educate people about the methods, tactics and strategies being actively deployed to manipulate our thoughts and emotions. Rather than to continue with hundreds more podcasts and essays concerning the modified-mRNA tech in which I repeat the obvious as well as cover things I have repeatedly covered for three years now.

I cling to shreds of hope that, by learning about how and what is being done to each of us by a wide variety of state, non-state and corporate actors, we can collectively become more immune to this type of propaganda campaign. Judging by what I see and read on a daily basis, this may be a fools errand, but it is what I have decided to commit myself to. And it works for me - I am first and foremost an educator/teacher, and a son of a conservative teacher who left the public school system in the early 60s due to the teacher union movement. It is in my blood. But, to be honest, my general faith in humanity has been shaken by what I have observed and experienced over the last few years.

The Chinese government, the Chinese Central Communist Party (CCP), and the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) have practiced and refined cognitive warfare strategies and tactics over decades, and are relatively transparent in their (Mandarin language) publications concerning this technology. Therefore, CCP and PLA publications provide some of the best summaries of the current state of Cognitive Warfare technology - methods designed to directly influence and program your subconscious mind. But in no way should you conclude that the Chinese government is the only actor that is deploying these methods.

In a preceding published substack essay focusing on Cognitive Warfare (“Cognitive Warfare; Targeting your subconscious”, NATO documents were cited and referenced as source material for the analysis. My sense is that these same advanced propaganda methods are also being routinely used by corporations and non-state actors to advance their interests via social media actions. The UK Army 77th Brigade appears to also act based in part on this playbook. In the case of at least one corporate entity active in the COVIDcrisis “resistance”, I have personally observed and experienced multiple examples of the same strategies and tactics described in CCP and PLA publications.

What most of these passionate keyboard warriors (and their sponsors) seem completely oblivious to is that these methods and the falsehoods that they promote using this technology are destroying the fabric of western society- political and otherwise. In the case of the CCP/PLA, this is clearly intentional. But in the case of NATO, 77th Brigade, corporate and NGO non-state actors, my sense is that there is such a focus on “winning”, suppressing opposition, and advancing various agendas (including fragmentation of the COVID “opposition”), that many or most of these groups are oblivious to the deeper destruction of social cohesion and fundamental concepts of truth and ethics which these strategies and tactics are rapidly eroding.

And yet the transparently false accusations, virtue signaling, moral outbidding, and truth spirals continue unabated, egged on by hidden fifth generation warfare troops and trolls actively deploying the same cognitive warfare strategies and tactics so well developed by the CCP/PLA.

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UK 77th Brigade: Example of A NATO PsyWar/Cognitive Warfare Battle Unit

<Summarized from the official UK Army 6th Division, 77th Brigade website>

ADAPTING TO WARFARE IN THE INFORMATION AGE.

Warfare is rapidly evolving and the ability to compete in the information domain is critical. We must develop our capabilities and find novel ways of operating to counter our adversaries.

WHO WE ARE

77th Brigade is a hybrid unit of Regulars and Reservists with specialist skills to combat new forms of warfare in the information environment for the defense of the UK and its overseas territories.

SOME OF THE WAYS WE HELP

• Establish partnerships, operating platforms and systems in order to conduct overseas operations.

• Understand the information environment and opportunities to gain an advantage within it.

• Identify, develop and conduct information operations, independently or with partners, to gain advantage against actual or potential adversaries.

• Conduct audience analysis to deliver the most effective operations in support of military objectives. 

• Develop capabilities to operate and ensure advantage in the information domain.

WHAT WE DO

77th Brigade constrains our hostile state actors and adversaries through information operations and targeting, deployed and at stand off.

Using intelligence to understand audiences and systems, analyze networks and identify intelligence opportunities, the Brigade holds a range of capabilities to deliver effect.

77th Brigade activities are best employed in concert with other military effects to achieve integrated action.

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The “Defense” industry publication “Defense One” has provided a brief summary of CCP and PLA planning and publications concerning cognitive warfare, sections from which are quoted below:

China’s social-media attacks are part of a larger ‘cognitive warfare’ campaign

Chinese government and military writings say cognitive operations aim to “capture the mind” of one’s foes, shaping an adversary’s thoughts and perceptions and consequently their decisions and actions. Unlike U.S. defense documents and strategic thinkers, the People’s Liberation Army puts cognitive warfare on par with the other domains of warfare like air, sea, and space, and believes it key to victory—particularly victory without war.

Social media platforms are viewed as the main battlefield of this fight. China, through extensive research and development of their own platforms, understands the power of social media to shape narratives and cognition over events and actions. When a typical user spends 2.5 hours a day on social media—36 full days out of the year, 5.5 years in an average lifespan—it is perhaps no surprise that the Chinese Communist Party believes it can, over time, shape and even control the cognition of individuals and whole societies.

A recent PLA Daily article lays out four social-media tactics, dubbed “confrontational actions”: Information Disturbance, Discourse Competition, Public Opinion Blackout, and Block Information. The goal is to achieve an “invisible manipulation” and "invisible embedding" of information production “to shape the target audience's macro framework for recognizing, defining, and understanding events,” write Duan Wenling and Liu Jiali, professors of the Military Propaganda Teaching and Research Department of the School of Political Science at China’s National Defense University.

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The following is a machine translated version of the original Mandarin article by Professors Duan Wenling and Liu Jial.
I have personally observed and experienced every single one of these strategies and tactics deployed against myself and others over the last three years. I have inserted clarifying text from the “Defense One” essay to further clarify sections of the original.

PLA Daily

Authors: Duan Wenling, Liu Jiali

Editor-in-chief: Liu Shangjing 2023-02-02

“Cognitive Confrontation on the Social Media Battlefield

Social media's "invisible manipulation" in issue planning, "seamless embedding" in information production, and "seamless linking" in information dissemination can effectively achieve "senseless and heartfelt" influence on audiences. The influence of "no feeling into the heart" can be effectively achieved on the audience.

Recent local war practices show that modern wars are often fought in two battlefields at the same time: one is the battlefield of personnel and equipment in real space; the other is the social media battlefield of information and cognitive confrontation in cyberspace.

Cognitive confrontation on the social media battlefield aims to shape the target audience's macro-framework for recognizing, defining, and understanding events, and seeks to influence the target audience's actions through customized information sent under the macro-framework, which then constitutes a significant or even decisive impact on the real-war by influencing key cognitive factors.

Due to the linkage and superposition of information dissemination mechanisms, social media confrontation styles present complexity and comprehensiveness, but the key is to carry out cognitive competition for the target audience. Currently, there are four main types of confrontation actions that can be clearly recognized.

Information Scrambling or Information Disturbance.

That is, the release of specific information in social media to influence the target audience's awareness of the real combat situation, and then shape their position and change their actions. Currently, social media has developed various types of platforms such as instant messaging, mobile live broadcasting, picture and video, games and entertainment, basically realizing the type of traditional media coverage and functional substitution, and its vivid and rich media forms make it very easy for people to identify with the content. Currently, there are more than 4 billion social media users in the world, and once the response to certain sensitive events is too fast and too hot, it will have a huge chain reaction and social impact.”

(From Defense One) While these official channels have taken on a more strident “Wolf Warrior” tone, recently, Information Disturbance is not just about appearing strong, advise the analysts. Indeed, they cite how during 2014’s “Twitter War” between the Israeli Defense Force and the Palestinian Qassam Brigade, the Palestinians managed to “win international support by portraying an image of being weak and the victim.”

The tactic, which predates social media, is reminiscent of Deng Xiaoping’s Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦)—literally translated as "Hide brightness, nourish obscurity.” China created a specific message to target the United States (and the West more broadly) under the official messaging of the CCP, that China was a humble nation focused on economic development and friendly relationships with other countries. This narrative was very powerful for decades; it shaped the U.S. and other nations’ policy towards China.

“2012 Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli military through the "Israel Defense Forces spokesman" social media account, constantly releasing information on the battlefield, not only releasing information to show their own position, but also by promoting the results of the battle to reflect their own position, but also by promoting the results of the war. It also demonstrated military deterrence by publicizing the results of battles. Its rival, Hamas, has also made full use of the Qassam Brigades' account to counterattack and gain international support by portraying itself as the underdog and the victim. The actions of both sides have been dubbed the "Twitter war" by the media, a sign that the war is expanding into the cognitive domain through social media.

Discourse competition.

This is the competitive release of key evaluation indicators, which in turn builds a discursive environment based on the corresponding criteria, subconsciously shaping the cognitive framework in favor of a particular side. Currently, the strategy of "trolling", in which narratives are disseminated through social media and online comments to gradually influence public perceptions and thus help achieve war or political goals, is the main manifestation of this style of action. Its main practice is to "lead the tempo" by spreading false and misleading statements in hotspot events, thereby awakening the existing cognitive bias of social media users, selectively shaping the cognitive framework of the target audience, intensifying the cognitive confrontation of the target audience, and aggravating the tension in cyberspace and even in social public opinion. At the same time, under the support of algorithmic recommendation technology of intelligent social media platforms, the false and misleading information disseminated by "trolls" is more directional and the group effect is more obvious, coupled with the technical application of social robots, auto-broadcasting, voice-image fitting, and immersive experience, users are more likely to be influenced by such information and their cognition is more easily affected. Users are more susceptible to the continuous influence of such information, and their cognition is more likely to be influenced or held hostage, thus forming or intensifying their cognitive bias and emotional psychology towards a certain topic.

In recent years, the full use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in many major international events has shown that the "invisible manipulation" of social media in issue planning and the "untraceable embedding" of information production have made social media more effective. The "invisible manipulation" of social media in issue planning, the "traceless embedding" of information production, and the "seamless linking" of information dissemination methods can effectively achieve a "senseless and heartfelt" impact on the audience.”

(From Defense One) Here, the idea is to “fuel the flames” of existing biases and manipulate emotional psychology to influence and deepen a desired narrative. The authors cite the incredible influence that “invisible manipulation” and “invisible embedding” can have on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in international events, and recommend that algorithm recommendations be used to push more and more information to target audiences with desired biases. Over time, the emotion and bias will grow and the targeted users will reject information that does not align with their perspective.

“Opinion shading.

That is to say, at a specific time with specific offline actions, including specific actions in the military and political fields, to create a specific type of public opinion in order to occupy a wide range of public opinion, and then influence the direction of public opinion. This style of action is currently realized mainly through intelligent media such as social bots.

According to a survey conducted by a foreign research organization, 66% of the 1.2 million "tweets" collected from various social media platforms linking to more than 2,000 popular websites were shared by bots.

Some researchers believe that a common and effective method of exerting cognitive influence is to use machine learning to tap into user emotions and biases to filter and target the most susceptible audience, and then rapidly and intensively "shoot" customized "mental ammunition" at the target group. That is to say, through a large number of "fake news" and "inaccurate information" to consciously shape and carefully fabricate the so-called "facts" or even rumors, and then implement precise delivery to form a "first cause effect" in the target audience.

The "first cause effect" is formed in the target audience after precise delivery, and then "lies are flooded" by the wide dissemination of intelligent media and network army to form "altered facts" and confuse the target audience about the truth of the "facts". The "altered facts" are formed through the extensive dissemination of intelligent media and "lies" by network water armies, so as to confuse the target audience's knowledge of the "facts" and achieve the purpose of influencing their psychology and manipulating their cognition.”

(From Defense One) This tactic aims to flood social media with a specific narrative to influence the direction of public opinion.  The main tool to “blackout” public opinion are bots that drive the narrative viral, stamping out alternative views and news. Of note to the growing use of AI in Chinese influence operations, the authors reference studies that show that a common and effective method of exerting cognitive influence is to use machine learning to mine user emotions and prejudices to screen and target the most susceptible audiences, and then quickly and intensively "shoot" customized "spiritual ammunition" to the target group.

This aligned withIn another PLA article entitled, “How ChatGPT will Affect the Future of Warfare,” .” Here, the authors write that generative AI can “efficiently generate massive amounts of fake news, fake pictures, and even fake videos to confuse the public” at a n overall societal level of significance[8].   Their The idea is to create, in their words, a “flooding of lies"” while by the dissemination and Internet trolls to create "altered facts" creates confusion about facts and .   The goal is to create confusion in the target audience's cognition regarding the truth of "facts" and play on emotions of fear, anxiety and suspicion. to create an atmosphere of insecurity, uncertainty, and mistrust. The end-state for the targeted society is an atmosphere of insecurity, uncertainty, and mistrust.

“Information blockade.

That is, the enemy information dissemination channels to implement technical attacks, blockade and even physical destruction, so that both sides in the cognitive confrontation in an asymmetric, unbalanced state, so as to monopolize the right to name, interpretation and agenda-setting rights, the target audience to carry out strong "cognitive shaping".

Nowadays, Western countries often use their technological advantages such as mastering root servers to infringe upon and control the Internet and network communications of other countries; in 2009, the U.S. government authorized Microsoft to cut off the Internet instant messaging ports of Syria, Iran, Cuba and other countries, paralyzing their networks in an attempt to "erase" them from the world's Internet.

In 2022, the social media platform Facebook publicly announced that it would restrict some of the media from Russia, Iran and other countries and label them with their identities, deleting their propaganda against the United States, so as to gain an advantageous position in the cognitive confrontation.

However, based on the Internet world's consistent rule of "if you block it, bypass it", it is very difficult to truly realize the complete blocking of information about the opponent in reality, and the social media battlefield will still be filled with a "fog of war" in which all kinds of information, including false information, are entangled with each other.

The social media battlefield will continue to be filled with the "fog of war" in which all kinds of information, including false information, are entangled.”

(From Defense One) The fourth type focuses on “carrying out technical attacks, blockades, and even physical destruction of the enemy's information communication channels”. The goal is to monopolize and control information flow by preventing an adversary from disseminating information. In this tactic, and none of the others, the Chinese analysts believe the United States has a huge advantage. They cite that in 2009, for example, the U.S. government authorized Microsoft to cut off the Internet instant messaging ports of Syria, Iran, Cuba and other countries, paralyzing their networks and trying to "erase" them from the world Internet. The authors also mention in 2022, Facebook announced restrictions on some media in Russia, Iran, and other countries, but falsely claim that the company did so to delete posts negative toward the United States, for the US to gain an advantage in “cognitive confrontation.”

However, this disparity in power over the network is changing. With the rise in popularity of TikTok, it is conceivable China has the ability to shape narratives and block negative information. For example, in 2019 TikTok reportedly suspended the account of a 17-year-old user in New Jersey after she posted a viral video criticizing the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghur ethnic minority. China has also demonstrated its influence over the Silicon Valley owners of popular social media platforms. Examples range from Mark Zuckerberg literally asking Xi what he should name his daughter to Elon Musk’s financial dependence on Communist China’s willingness to manufacture and sell Tesla cars. Indeed, Newsguard has found that since Musk purchased Twitter, engagement of Chinese, Russian, and Iranian disinformation sources has soared by roughly 70 percent.

China has also begun to seek greater influence over the next versions of the Internet, where its analysts describe incredible potential to better control how the CCP’s story is told. While the U.S. lacks an overall strategy or policy for the metaverse (which uses augmented and virtual reality technologies), the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released in 2022 a five-year action plan to lead in this space. The plan includes investing in 100 “core” companies and “form 10 public service platforms” by 2026.

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Insecurity, uncertainty, and mistrust. That is a pretty good summary of what has swept over the “Medical Freedom” or approved COVID narrative “resistance movement”. I ask each reader to look inward and carefully consider if, at one time or another, they might have acted to contribute to this end state consequent to having been manipulated by one or more of the methods discussed above. Speaking for myself, every time I find myself in the UK testifying or giving a speech, my social media accounts (particularly “X”) have been swarmed by what are clearly 77th brigade-linked bots and Trolls.

As you interact in the surreal fifth generation warfare battle scape which is modern social media, please keep in mind that everything that you read, see, feel, or think is being actively manipulated by a wide range of actors and organizations seeking to silently, surreptitiously bend you to their will. Almost nothing is what it seems. What may seem to be a wide range of voices promoting some narrative (like the repeated “bad jacketing” accusation of “controlled opposition”) is frequently a synthetic effort to manipulate your thoughts and opinions.

So please try to not be a victim of these manipulations. Learn the strategies and tactics being deployed against your mind, your free will, your ability to discern truth from “fake news”. Teach others about these methods that are being used to divide all of us against each other.

And be careful out there. War is raging all around you, it is extremely difficult to even know who is doing what to whom, and this is all by design. So good luck, and try to think for yourself. When you encounter these promoted narratives, try to ask the deeper questions-

What is the evidence to support the claim?

Whose interests are being advanced by those making accusations, spreading rumors, or “flooding the zone” with false information?

Are the repeated claims or accusations specific, or vague generalities?

Are the promoted story lines consistent with your own experience?

And please keep in mind that at the core of these strategies are sophisticated virtual maps of your own biases, which are then being exploited to manipulate your opinions via a variety of machine algorithms.

And this is being done intentionally, including by the Social Media companies themselves.

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