China's Military AI Wish List

Curator note

This report examines thousands of open-source requests for proposal (RFPs)
published by China’s People’s Liberation Army between January 1, 2023, and
December 31, 2024. The RFPs we reviewed offer insights into the PLA’s priorities and
ambitions for AI-enabled military technologies associated with C5ISRT: command,
control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,
and targeting.
In analyzing these RFPs, we find that the PLA is pursuing AI-enabled capabilities
across all domains. The applications include AI-enabled decision support systems (AI-
DSS), sensor enhancement tools, data fusion algorithms, and much more.
The RFPs reflect China’s desire to generate, augment, and fuse increasing quantities of
data to speed military decision-making and improve the precision and efficacy of the
PLA’s operations. Specifically, we found requests for AI-DSS that can leverage open-
source data for strategic decision-making. We also came across requests for AI-DSS to support tactical decisions, such as for targeting. While many militaries are investing in AI-DSS, these systems are of particular importance to the PLA, which views them as means of compensating for perceived weaknesses in its officer corps.
More specifically, we found an emphasis on AI applications that would counter
perceived U.S. military advantages. This emphasis was especially apparent in
numerous requests for technologies to detect U.S. naval assets on and under the sea,
as well as technologies that could counteract U.S. space-based systems.
Outside of the maritime and space domains, the PLA’s RFPs reveal that it aims to
acquire increasingly sophisticated surveillance and cognitive domain capabilities. RFPs
for facial and gait recognition systems, digital surveillance tools capable of recovering
deleted data, and technologies for generating and detecting deepfakes point to
ongoing efforts to better secure military installations and develop AI-enabled
psychological warfare and cognitive targeting tools