April 18, 2018

China’s Strategic Ambiguity and Shifting Approach to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems

On April 13, China’s delegation to United Nations  on  the “desire to negotiate and conclude” a new protocol for the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons “to ban the use of fully autonomous lethal weapons systems.”  the aptly named Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the delegation “stressed that [the ban] is limited to use only.” The same day, the Chinese air force  on an upcoming challenge intended to evaluate advances in fully autonomous swarms of drones, which will also explore new concepts for future intelligent-swarm combat.

The juxtaposition of these announcements illustrates China’s apparent diplomatic commitment to limit the use of “fully autonomous lethal weapons systems” is unlikely to stop Beijing from building its own.


Read the full article at Lawfare

  • Commentary
    • May 22, 2025
    Sharper: America’s Edge

    A volatile global security environment requires the United States and its allies to develop new tactics and capabilities to deal with novel global threats. On June 3, policyma...

    By Charles Horn

  • Commentary
    • May 20, 2025
    Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure on DOE Lands

    Maintaining America’s lead in AI data centers is critical for U.S. AI dominance....

    By Caleb Withers, Janet Egan & Spencer Michaels

  • Podcast
    • May 19, 2025
    Droning On: How Ukraine and Russia Have Revolutionized Drone Warfare

    In this episode of Three Questions, Paul Saunders speaks with Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Mr. Bendett is a military ana...

    By Samuel Bendett

  • Commentary
    • CEPA
    • May 9, 2025
    Tariffs and Tech: An Uncertain Recipe

    Higher tariffs could prompt American cloud companies to shift more of their capital investments abroad....

    By Pablo Chavez

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia