China steps up spying on U.S. military

Li Shangfu (center), who was slapped with U.S. sanctions this week for buying arms from Russia, is director of the Equipment Development Department of China’s Central Military Commission. The department announced a database that will likely benefit from China’s theft of 22.1 million records on American federal workers, including those with security clearances, from the Office of Personnel Management in 2015. (Photo by: Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press/File)

 

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is stepping up open-source spying on the U.S. military and other foreign militaries that will utilize artificial intelligence means.

According to a procurement notice from China’s Central Military Commission, the new database is a six-month project to set up an “Open Source Intelligence Database on Foreign Militaries.”

The revealing notice was published by the commission’s PLA Equipment Development Department, whose director, Lt. Gen. Li Shangfu, was slapped with U.S. sanctions this week for buying arms from Russia.

The database will likely benefit from China’s theft of 22.1 million records on American federal workers, including those with security clearances, from the Office of Personnel Management in 2015. Chinese hackers also stole an estimated 80 million records on Americans from health care insurance giant Anthem.

The Death Of Think Tanks, Part Three

Look around at the researchers who staff the ranks of America’s leading think tanks.  The vast majority tout their experience in the administrations of presidents Obama, both Bushes, Clinton, going as far back as Reagan.  Many who served with Bush 43 served with Bush 41. Many who served with Obama served with Clinton.

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The median age in many think tanks is 70.  Many of these thinkers have not had a new policy idea in decades. Rather, they recycle, refurbish, and repeat previous work, spending much of their time defending policies they promoted decades ago.