Enumerating, Targeting and Collapsing the Chinese Communist Party’s NeuroStrike Program

Aggregating Intelligence Fragments and the Power of Network Graphs

Unknown to many, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have established themselves as world leaders in the development of NeuroStrike weapons. These platforms directly attack, or even control, mammalian brains (including humans) with microwave/directed energy weapons via standalone platforms (i.e., handheld gun) or the broader electromagnetic spectrum.1 NeuroStrike, as defined by McCreight, refers to the engineered targeting of warfighter and civilian brains using distinct non-kinetic technology to impair cognition, reduce situational awareness, inflict long term neurological degradation and fog normal cognitive functions.2 The CCP views NeuroStrike and psychological warfare as a core component of its asymmetric warfare strategy against the United States and its Allies in the Indo-Pacific.

NeuroStrike is part of the CCP’s standard order of battle; not an unconventional set of capabilities only to be used under extreme circumstances. This represents a fundamental difference in strategic thinking regarding these domains in Beijing. This is not a hypothetical point. There was a sharp statistical increase in Chinese military activity in the South China Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Straits, and along the Sino-Indian border during the most acute phases of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 and 2021.3

However, the CCP’s weaponization of neuroscience extends well beyond the scope and understanding of classical microwave weapons. Their new landscape of NeuroStrike development includes using massively distributed human-computer interfaces to control entire populations as well as a range of weapons designed to cause cognitive damage.