This is your US-China CyberPulse: Defense Updates podcast.

Hey listeners, it’s Ting, your cyber-savvy, China-watching, code-breaking guide through this week’s US-China CyberPulse defense whirlwind—strap in, because November 2025 has been a wild ride. If you blinked, you might’ve missed President Trump and President Xi’s cozy little sidebar at the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in South Korea, dropping hints about future AI collaboration. Xi keeps pushing the idea of a World AI Cooperation Organization, trying to put global AI governance on the agenda for next year’s APEC in Shenzhen. But before you start singing kumbaya, remember: while Xi’s talking “safety, accessibility, trustworthiness,” the US side is largely focused on trade and avoiding centralized global control. The “tech war” vibe is strong.

Now, let’s focus on the home front. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act—CISA, the backbone of US public-private cyberdefense since 2015—just expired six weeks ago. The fallout? Real-time info-sharing between government and industry has dropped off a cliff. Healthcare ransomware reports up 12%, energy companies facing longer delays, banks losing sight of cross-border fraud. Data silos are popping up while China-linked cyber actors ramp up attacks. And everyone’s waiting for Congress to push through the “Protecting America from Cyber Threats Act”—Senators Gary Peters and Mike Rounds are hustling, but until it passes, threat intelligence slows to a crawl.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice’s new Data Security Program is in full effect, clamping down on Chinese access to bulk sensitive personal data and US government-related data. Companies are scrambling to update contracts and vendor screens. This regulatory tightening forms part of a broader effort—think tighter export controls and continued focus on supply chain security, especially following China’s Ministry of Commerce tweaks to trade measures targeting US entities after consultations in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a chess game with dual-use items and trade permissions now hinging on case-by-case regulatory approval.

Frontline defenses are evolving too. Booz Allen’s latest report unmasks four force multipliers behind PRC cyber power: trusted relationship abuse, edge device exploits, AI-driven speed, and advanced attribution-masking. The counterstrategy? Move from whack-a-mole reaction to proactivity—degrade China’s footholds before they become entrenched. Integrate AI-driven analytics, automate threat detection, and foster international response teams. But in practical terms, info-sharing delays make these high-speed defenses harder than ever.

Let’s not miss the private sector pulse—marine terminals and US-flagged vessels are rolling out new cybersecurity plans and officer designations, per Coast Guard rules in effect since July. Reporting cyber incidents straight to the National Response Center is now mandatory. Across the board, NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework remains the go-to, guiding risk management even as new compliance headaches stack up, like the Pentagon’s enforcement of CMMC in the defense industrial base.

This week saw a juicy data breach at Knownsec, a heavyweight Chinese cyber firm, revealing state-backed cyber arsenals and targets—handing US defenders rare visibility into adversary tradecraft but also exposing the fragility even among industry leaders.

Internationally, the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen highlighted cross-border cooperation attempts, but beneath the surface, bloc fragmentation continues, with the European Commission readying bans on Chinese firms deemed US-designated threats. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe published a new technical guide urging unified cyber-physical defenses for critical infrastructure, as everyone races to secure the grid against persistent nation-state probing.

So here’s my take: it’s as if we all upgraded to quantum hardware overnight, but someone forgot to patch the firewall. Chinese cyber strategy is shifting, American policy is scrambling, and the private sector is caught in the crossfire. Will Congress fix CISA? Can AI-enabled defense outpace AI-powered offense? Only time, and furious innovation, will tell.

Thanks for tuning in to US-China CyberPulse with Ting. Subscribe so you don’t miss the next exploit. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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