China is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) throughout its military apparatus in order to transform its modes of communication, jamming and combat, according to local media.
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The country would develop an “AI Plus” strategy aimed at deploying these technologies in its electronic warfare (EW) systems in order to confuse opposing jammers, according to an article in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) (source in English) released earlier this month.
AI should allow Chinese researchers to predict how to jam drones up to 5,000 kilometers away, without relying on satellites, which would be useful for China in the event of solar storms or electronic attacks, according to the report.
China would also use AI to simulate the behavior of radio waves in the air and at sea, which could enable instant communications between drones and submarines, according to the SCMP.
China is considered the main competitor to the United States in the race to adopt AI across all sectors, including the military.
Euronews Next takes stock of what we know, at this stage, about how the country deploys AI within its army.
“Xi believes AI is key to global great power status”
In 2017, China released a development plan for the new generation of AI, which explicitly sets the goal of achieving “global leading levels in artificial intelligence theory, technology and applications” by 2030.
Two years later, it followed up with a military strategy in which the government wrote that “war is evolving towards computerized warfare, and intelligent warfare is looming on the horizon”, listing several technologies, including AI, as “in full acceleration” in international military competition.
The desire to have an “intelligent” army was further clarified in a speech delivered in 2022 (source in English) by President Xi Jinping, who calls on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to “fully grasp the characteristics of informational and intelligent warfare” in order to build “unmanned and intelligent combat capabilities.”
The PLA uses the term “intelligent warfare” to refer to a “systems effort” to integrate AI, robotics and unmanned systems into decision-making platforms and systems, says Frank O’Donnell, senior research advisor at the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network (APLN).
« Xi [Jinping] “he himself sees AI, in particular, as the key to becoming a global power in the 21st century,” O’Donnell tells Euronews Next.
Several articles in the PLA Daily, the army’s newsletter, reflect China’s desire to build a human-AI model, in which a commander sets the intention and has it carried out by the AI, according to a report (source in English) de la Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD), un groupe de réflexion américain.
In this scheme, the system would act “in practice like a digital headquarters” responsible for assigning missions and coordinating actions in real time, the report continues.
According to O’Donnell, the success of AI in China will probably not involve fully autonomous weapons, as the government has often insisted on the need for human control.
“It is difficult to assess China’s degree of advancementâ€
There is very little reliable public information on how advanced China is in integrating AI into its military operations, O’Donnell points out.
China has presented certain autonomous drones capable of coordinating to make attack decisions and saturate opposing military sensors, he continues.
The general public discovered China’s latest drones during last year’s Victory Parade, an annual event where the country shows off its military might to the rest of the world.
Sam Bresnick, researcher at Georgetown University in the United States, recalls that commentators on state television claimed that these drones were equipped with AI, but without specifying what capabilities this covers.
“Does this mean they select targets autonomously? That they themselves make the decision to hit people… or simply that they are capable of moving to certain places on their own? » asks Bresnick.
The demonstration of potentially AI-assisted drones illustrates China’s ability to “produce hundreds of these devices very easily, thanks to an extremely strong industrial base,” notes O’Donnell.
“These drone swarms are a good way to showcase this capability in a spectacular way, but with a relatively limited risk of failure,” he adds.
China also appears to be extending AI to its navy, O’Donnell adds, as the PLA introduced an AI-assisted decision support system in 2025 that improves the stealth of a guided-missile frigate, a warship tasked with protect other buildings.
China has also reportedly developed “robot dogs” capable of moving without human assistance, but Bresnick says he doubts the real viability of this technology.
“I give almost no credit to these videos because they are shot in completely controlled environments,” he explains. “We don’t know if the robot… is not in reality piloted by people off-camera. HAS”
The APL is likely working on many other AI technologies that neither O’Donnell nor Bresnick have access to, they acknowledge.
“It is probably a question of developing decision-making, sensor and communication systems, then integrating AI, with the objective of allowing all forces to act more quickly to overwhelm and disorient the enemy,” explains O’Donnell. “It is difficult to assess China’s level of advancement. HAS”
The calls for tenders published by the APL also show interest in the use of large language models (LLM), which underpin AI, for a whole range of functions, such as automating support tasks or decision support, says Bresnick.
He adds that there are indications that the PLA will also integrate public models, such as DeepSeek, into its operations.
Where are China’s gaps in military AI?
China, like the United States, anticipates that a possible conflict between the two countries could break out “very quickly”, with the one that has best integrated AI then having an advantage, believes O’Donnell.
This is why he believes Beijing is seeking to rapidly deploy AI across its forces.
However, the AI-assisted weapons that China is developing have not been tested in real conflict and rely on combat simulations; they will therefore be less realistic than their American counterparts, conclude O’Donnell and Bresnick.
“The Chinese army has not fought a war since 1979,” recalls Bresnick. “She is very inexperienced by international military standards. HAS”
Bresnick adds that the PLA is interested in using AI-assisted augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies to train its troops.
China also lacks some of the AI infrastructure needed to develop artificial intelligence weapons, such as semiconductor chips and computer systems, O’Donnell points out.
Recently, Chinese AI companies like Huawei, Alibaba Group, Baidu and Xiaomi have claimed to develop AI models using chips made in China. But, according to O’Donnell, a technological gap persists compared to the United States, where semiconductor giant Nvidia is based.
