This is your Tech Shield: US vs China Updates podcast.

Listeners, Ting here—your not-so-average China watcher, cyber sleuth, and lover of all things slightly sarcastic and super secure. No time for grand intros; today’s topic is red-hot: the latest chapter in Tech Shield, US vs China—so let’s jack in.

This past week saw the Pentagon urged by Shane McNeil, counterintelligence adviser to the Joint Staff, to **stop treating counterintelligence like boring paperwork** and start using it “offensively” against Chinese Ministry of State Security cyber and spy campaigns. That means more than just patching leaks with duct tape—think precision strikes, real-time tracking of threats, and treating CI like artillery, not a back-office gig. In modern warfare, says McNeil, “info warheads on spy foreheads” is the new mantra—gotta love a little poetic aggression.

But here’s the kicker: Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth just relaxed mandatory cybersecurity training across the U.S. military. His logic? Focus on “warfighting” and cut distractions. Meanwhile, Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, says the cyber domain is “the number one attack surface being used by the CCP against the US,” calling the new policy “theatrics.” I can’t decide if this is prioritizing muscle over brain, or just pixie dust for morale.

While leadership dials back the training, the FBI's numbers are climbing faster than my phone’s spam folder: a new **China-related counterintelligence case opens every 10 hours**. For context, this year alone, arrests for military espionage have already outpaced full past decades. Remember Army analyst Korbein Schultz, Federal prisoners Li Tian and Jian Zhao, and Navy sailor Wenheng Zhao? All caught selling secrets to Beijing for sums so low you could mistake them for TikTok influencer deals. Social media and fake job platforms are the new watering holes for MSS recruiters—LinkedIn is officially more dangerous than your ex’s DMs.

Out in the wild, Cisco Talos flagged group UAT-8099, a Chinese-speaking cybercrime gang, hammering high-value IIS servers since April. Targeting American infrastructure means the pressure for **aggressive vulnerability patching** just got real—if your tech stack isn’t up to date, you belong in a museum.

Don’t get me started on the “web of dependencies.” According to The FAI, companies like **Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft** are so tangled up with China’s supply chain and tech platforms, they’ve basically become part-time suppliers of tools to China’s cyber ops—even as Washington warns about forced labor and embedded backdoors. When your national interests and profits disagree, you can guess which gets the bigger office.

So what are America’s moves? There’s push for a new **National Counterintelligence Center** and calls for more **financial, behavioral, and digital monitoring of personnel with access**, plus upgrade in tech for spotting insider threats. But gaps remain: decentralized agencies, slow patch cycles, and honestly, not enough cyber hygiene—especially if training is now “optional.”

Expert consensus: **America’s cyber defenses are finally leveraging offensive counterintelligence and real-time tech**, but the reduction in basic cyber education is the definition of risky business. Supply chains are still a weak spot; social platforms and recruiting tactics need sharper countermeasures, and tech companies must pick a lane—national duty or shareholder meetings.

Listeners, it’s time for U.S. cyber to swap defense-only playbooks for full-on digital jiu-jitsu. If you ask me, until we align government, industry, and boots-on-the-ground vigilance, we’re still bringing PowerPoint to a gunfight.

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