A Chinese political scientist and adviser to Beijing said the operation in Iran showed how deeply AI is now embedded in US combat power and noted why China needs to move faster.
The killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a coordinated US-Israeli air campaign is setting off alarm among Chinese policy insiders about America’s growing edge in military artificial intelligence (AI).
Zheng Yongnian, a Chinese political scientist and adviser to Beijing, said the operation showed how deeply AI is now embedded in US combat power and noted why China needs to move faster.
He warned that Beijing “risks repeating historical mistakes” if its AI capabilities stay mostly in entertainment and civilian sectors, South China Morning Post reported.
The strikes on Iran — dubbed Operation Epic Fury — were rooted in months of planning and layered intelligence efforts, aiming to neutralize nuclear facilities, missile bases, radar sites, and command centers.
Retired PLA colonel urges China to re-evaluate its military capability and shift focus from reverse-engineering to domestic technology development. “We need to stop thinking about how our military hardware looks; instead, what is inside the military hardware is most important”, a retired PLA colonel Yue Gang told South China Sea Morning Post.
Chinese-made SF-200 drones, YLC-8B radars and HQ-9B anti-air missiles were destroyed in Iran, proving China had a difficult task ahead of rebuilding the reputation of its military hardware. Foreign buyers are watching the Iran war closely, as America’s superior military hardware dominates Iran’s airspace.
Beyond conventional aerial weapons, the US military operation has underscored the pivotal role of electronic warfare, intelligence gathering, and AI-assisted operations in modern warfare.
Reports from The Wall Street Journal and Reuters said AI systems from California-based Anthropic helped with intelligence analysis, target identification, and battlefield simulations.
In addition, Zheng pointed to US tech firms Palantir and Anduril as key players in Washington’s modern US military ecosystem.
These companies now assist the Pentagon in processing massive amounts of battlefield data, track potential threats, and support operational planning.
‘Wake-Up Call’
Other analysts shared Zheng’s view on how tightly AI technologies are now woven into military missions, as shown in recent US operations.
One example is the January raid in Caracas that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro using AI-enabled targeting and drone swarms.
“The militarization of AI is a wake-up call for the entire industry,” said William Wei, vice-president and chief operations officer at Chinese cybersecurity firm WebRAY.
“It underscores the urgency of technological self-reliance.”
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