The Economy as Battlefield: The 21st Century Sino-American Cold War

2430 Group’s Director, Glenn Chafetz describes a 21st Cold War with China in a May 20, 2025 article in Publications—Irregular Warfare Center. Chafetz contends that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) centrally directs the entirety of its party-state-economic machinery, including its putatively private companies, against the decentralized, civilian assets of the United States’ commercial sector, critical infrastructure, and civil society. The US fails to adequately respond or deter China because the attacks are incremental and hard to detect; the private sector lacks the ability and incentives to defend itself; and neither the USG nor the private sector adequately capture the risks of inaction.