State and Private Capital Allocations in China as Strategic Intelligence

This paper examines the implications of 21st century global power competition, particularly from China, through the lens of information advantage. For the United States (US) to maintain its position as a world leader amidst renewed global competition, the US must emphasize maintaining information advantage through forecasting adversary capabilities and intent. To heighten our awareness of China's capabilities and their ambitions of 'intelligentized warfare,' the US intelligence community should prioritize monitoring state and capital flows. State and private capital allocations work in concert with these information sets to show the priority and intensity of the pursuit of national interests. Allocation decisions demonstrate strategic decision-making and intent. More specifically, adversarial funding decisions relate directly to topics of concern in the National Intelligence Priority Framework (NIPF). When combined with existing economic and financial intelligence, collection focused on capital spending should enhance forecasting ability and identify actionable opportunities to craft counter policy and work more efficiently with our private industry partners. Such research and policy craft may also provide limited operational solutions through cyber operations and public affairs.