US-China AI Race Takes Dangerous Turn as Former Official Proposes Bombing Chinese Data Centers

Former Official Proposes Military Action Against Chinese AI Infrastructure

Jacob Stokes, deputy director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security and former Obama administration national security official, has called for the United States to prepare contingency plans for military strikes on Chinese data centers1

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. In his report titled "Superpowers and AGI," Stokes argues that Washington should examine options ranging from intelligence operations and cyberattacks to kinetic attacks—meaning destroying things with missiles and bombs—to prevent China from developing artificial general intelligence first3

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. The proposals come one day after OpenAI president Greg Brockman declared "Welcome to the AGI era" at the launch of GPT-6 Astra, sharpening the urgency of every scenario Stokes describes4

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Escalating Tensions Between the U.S. and China Over AI Dominance

The US-China AI race has taken a dangerous turn with these proposals, moving beyond economic competition into the geopolitical and military dimensions of AI. Stokes suggests that if the US becomes a "laggard state" behind China's achievement of AGI, it should "try to sabotage the leading state's AGI systems, either through physical infiltration or offensive cyber operations"2

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. He theorizes that cyberattacks might be preferable because they "might not provoke large-scale retaliation," given that cyberattacks are already considered normal state behavior below the threshold of war1

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. However, should cyberattacks fail, Stokes suggests rapid escalation to kinetic attacks. He acknowledges that bombing Chinese data centers would "cross a major threshold that heretofore has not been crossed in US-China relations"2

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China Threatens Retaliatory Missile Strikes on US Mainland

The escalatory rhetoric reached a sharp peak after Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-backed Global Times, directly threatened the U.S. mainland in response to Stokes's proposals. Writing on X, Hu warned: "If the U.S. truly dares to launch a military strike against China's data centers, I believe China's retaliation would not be limited to U.S. targets in the Asia-Pacific region; instead, it would directly target the U.S. mainland with missile strikes"4

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. This marks a significant escalation in rhetoric surrounding the US-China AI race, transforming what began as an economic rivalry over microchips into open discussion of military confrontation between two nuclear-armed powers.

Expert Warnings About Nuclear Deterrence and Global Power Dynamics

Arms analyst William Hartung of the Project on Government Oversight issued a sharp warning about the extreme measures if China reaches AGI first. Hartung told the South China Morning Post that attacking Chinese data centers based on their possible future role in AI development could trigger a direct conflict between the United States and China, both of which possess nuclear weapons3

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. He called strikes on Chinese data centers "the height of recklessness" that would "risk starting a shooting war between two nuclear-armed powers that could have tragic consequences for all concerned"4

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. The concern highlights a central problem: unlike conventional military targets, an AI facility could have both civilian and strategic uses, making it extremely difficult to establish whether a particular site is directly connected to an AGI programme3

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Espionage and Cyber Operations as Alternative Strategies

Beyond bombing Chinese data centers, Stokes also raised the option of obtaining China's technological secrets through espionage. The report argues that Washington could potentially attempt to reverse-engineer or acquire Chinese AGI technology if Beijing appeared to be approaching a decisive lead3

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. Stokes claims this would be justified "legally and normatively" given China's alleged history of intellectual-property theft4

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. However, he acknowledged that the U.S. intelligence apparatus has "not been organized for espionage to gather technological secrets for decades," making structural reform a prerequisite4

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Current State of the US-China AI Race and AGI Development

The U.S. currently holds a roughly seven-month lead over China in frontier AI model quality, according to Epoch AI4

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. However, Stokes warned that China could achieve a "surprise technological breakthrough," pointing to advances in robotics and other forms of embodied AI as a potential pathway4

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. Artificial general intelligence remains a hypothetical technology rather than an established system, broadly referring to an AI capable of performing at roughly human levels across a wide range of intellectual tasks3

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. Stokes argues that US policymakers should not wait until such a system exists before considering what its geopolitical consequences might be, calling for government agencies to start identifying the intelligence they would need to determine how advanced China's AI capabilities are3

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AI Governance Discussions Amid Rising Military Tensions

The debate unfolds against a delicate diplomatic backdrop. Trump and Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in Washington on September 24, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirming that AI governance is on the agenda4

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. Stokes framed the challenge as analogous to nuclear deterrence, arguing that policymakers must "work backwards based on the unique nature of the technology, in the same way that in a past era, policymakers would learn about nuclear weapons"4

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. However, his own assessment of the upcoming summit is muted: the "best-case scenario" is that both sides find the talks "constructive" rather than producing any governance breakthrough4

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. Neither the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, nor Beijing has officially responded to Stokes's proposals4

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. Watch how diplomatic channels respond to these proposals and whether they lead to new frameworks for managing the existential threat posed by advanced AI development.