China and the Information War

The Federation of American Scientists security blog has an interesting article up regarding PLA activity to limit the effectiveness of Google Earth. I guess they aren't very happy.

Chinese military authorities are paying increased attention to foreign satellite reconnaissance of Chinese forces and operations, and are pursuing countermeasures such as camouflage and deception to conceal sensitive material and activities, according to a newly-disclosed analysis (pdf) performed in 2007 by the DNI Open Source Center.

We enjoy looking at PLAN submarines, but if building underground submarine bases is how the PLAN is coping with Google Earth and other open source satellite imagery, what a great bargain for the United States. You'll have to forgive me if I take a moment and laugh at the insecurity of China in a Google world.

If China wasn't the only economic power in the top 30 hiding their military expenditures, nobody would care. However, the lack of transparency is a problem, in fact the lack of transparency is about the only hurdle facing the US and China in forming genuine partnerships in the 21st century. Secrets on top of secrets hidden behind secrets is not a healthy foundation for partnership.

The report is a quick read of seven pages. Guess we can look forward to a future where electronic jamming and laser dazzling are techniques China uses to conceal the activity of the PLA from the curious eyes of satellite technology. Welcome to the emerging information war.