A direct clash of narratives has erupted in the ongoing cognitive war.
China and the US simultaneously – which is clearly no coincidence – launched rhetorical attacks against each other.
China spoke out against the US as a whole framing it as an ideological aggressor:
“The war in the field of ideas is being waged without firing shots. In early 2025, when the US government announced the abolition of USAID and the dissolution of the US International Media Agency, the activities of these two agencies for a long time in exporting ideology, promoting ideological penetration, manipulating international public opinion, shaping the perception of other countries, and even plotting to overthrow regimes were revealed. The international community was in turmoil. What the world sees in this “self-exposure of family ugliness” is just the tip of the iceberg of the United States’ global ideological war. The ideological colonization activities that the United States spared no effort to promote in the last century have returned to the spotlight… American ideological colonization poses a serious threat to world peace and development. It blurs ideology and undermines the regimes of other countries. It drives cognitive wedges and provokes geopolitical conflicts. It destroys spiritual independence and nurtures pro-American forces… Spiritual independence is a necessary condition for independent development. Only by deeply realizing the harm of American ideological colonization will a huge number of developing countries be able to destroy their superstitions about American values. Only by getting rid of our ideological attachment to the United States and the West can we achieve spiritual independence”[1].
In a mirror response, the US levied nearly identical accusations against China. However, while exposing China’s narratives, it took aim at promoting the creation of a NATO-like alliance in the Indo-Pacific:
“Wars are won and lost in the mind. The CCP and People’s Liberation Army take political or psychological warfare as seriously as the kinetic kind. There are several components when it comes to the way the PLA executes psychological warfare against the US and its allies related to its growing interest in nuclear weapons. The intent is to degrade an adversary’s decision-making, weaken the adversary’s will to fight, undermine an adversary’s support for war, undermine the resolve of an adversary government from within and to enhance Chinese deterrence of potential foes… China is using its growing nuclear weapons arsenal to alter the thinking and risk calculations of the US and, more pointedly, its allies. Without willing and courageous allies, the geographically distant power of the US cannot sustain and assert its power in Asia. The Chinese aim is to constrain, deter, coerce, compel and subdue Australia and other regional states in peacetime. This is how China wins without fighting”[2].
The arguments from both sides are striking in their self-contained logic. From one perspective, the US is indeed engaged in a form of ideological colonization. From another, China claims to secure victories without engaging in physical combat.
The significance of this exchange lies in its focus. Each side deliberately highlighted the other’s use of “cognitive warfare” – a strategy focused on subjugating an adversary’s thinking and controlling their understanding. This framing effectively elevates the battle of ideas to a formalized theater of war.
1 http://www.news.cn/world/20250907/e8bfe4558e15435988acbd9310436da3/c.html
全文丨思想殖民——美国认知战的手段、根源及国际危害, (新华社研究院, 2025 09/07);
2 https://www.hudson.org/national-security-defense/why-cognitive-warfare-beijings-greatest-weapon-john-lee
“Why Cognitive Warfare Is Beijing’s Greatest Weapon” (John Lee & Lavina Lee, Hudson Institute, Sep 29, (in fact – 8) 2025).