PLA shoots down Xi’s plan for battlefield robots

A war of words has erupted between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the People’s Liberation Army over battlefield robots. The row broke out in the PLA Daily when the military-backed newspaper warned of the “moral pitfalls” in deploying humanoid troops.

Yet last week’s commentary risks undermining the policies of Commander-in-Chief Xi. State-of-the-art armed forces have become a priority under his leadership, with hundreds of billions of dollars being pumped into the defense budget.

His high-tech plans are geared to complement the nation’s economic might and Beijing’s growing presence as a geopolitical superpower. Revamping the military has become a crusade to herald “China’s Century.”

But constant purges and growing dissent inside the PLA threaten to stall Xi’s march of the robots. “Ethical research [has to be conducted to stop] indiscriminate killings and accidental deaths,” the PLA Daily stated about deploying humanoid troops.

“Regulating and constraining their combat use [would] avoid mistakes and loss of control,” it stressed, echoing fears raised by military experts about the rapid use of artificial intelligence, or AI, in conflict situations.

China is still trying to figure out how to do it.

Ying-Yu Lin, of Tamkang University

Behind the news:

• Last year, Xi mapped out his 2025 defense goals at the National People’s Congress, with a focus on cutting-edge tech such as AI and “unmanned combat capabilities.”
• Spending could be as high as US$700 billion, according to a report released in April.

Delve deeper: “[The Communist Party of China] has expanded its military budget by at least 7.2% for two consecutive years,” Wilson Beaver, a senior policy advisor at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, said.

Between the lines: “[Yet], that figure also comes from official [Party] reports and should be regarded with skepticism,” he wrote in a commentary for the conservative think tank, adding that it could be much “bigger.”

Big picture: Still, hiding the true cost of China’s military funding is the least of Xi’s problems. Finding the generational “talent” to build and roll out his robot army and turn science fiction into science fact will be challenging.

Bottom line: “In fact, China is still trying to figure out how to do it. If it wants to fight technological warfare, [it needs the right people],” Ying-Yu Lin, of Tamkang University in Taiwan, told Voice of America.

China Factor comment: Another problem is that Xi’s “military appears to be firing more top brass than bullets” in a “never-ending purge.” Earlier this year, we revealed the true state of “trust issues inside the PLA high command.” Since then, nothing has changed.