The United States is not yet losing the global information war, but we soon will be — unless we act quickly and make the most of our strengths.

Russia recently amped up its disinformation and misinformation around the U.S. election. The United States recently accused RT, Russia’s state media, of out-and-out intelligence activities. Still, of all the globe’s information warriors, the most formidable is still China, which spends billions each year to dominate the world’s information space. More than missiles, ships, drones or guns, this is the real threat to our national — and global — security. Listen to China’s president, Xi Jinping, as quoted by then-Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) during a congressional hearing last November: “Once the front lines of human thought have been broken through, other defensive lines also become hard to defend.”

How is China controlling global narratives and silencing critics? By buying television and radio frequencies around the world, partnering with news organizations, seeding pro-China content into local media, courting journalists and content creators with trips, training and new equipment and winning over their bosses with free content.

The PRC targets both Chinese and non-Chinese audiences worldwide, far beyond its own borders. China’s largest media conglomerate, Xinhua, has 37 bureaus in Africa, far more than any other news agency, African or non-African — a dramatic increase from just two decades ago. The PRC is running information operations into Latin America, from Cuba to Nicaragua to Venezuela and beyond.

Even in countries boasting a free press, China’s free-for-the-taking content lures the cash-strapped media industry: Consider Xi’s visit to South Africa in 2023, when he put his name to an article hailing China and South Africa as “comrades and friends.” Three leading South African newspapers reprinted the talking points verbatim on their front pages.

In China, the PRC has made tremendous progress fortifying the so-called Great Firewall, deterring citizens from accessing outside information while funding party-approved, entertainment-focused content to lull them into cocooning themselves within.

Nevertheless, the United States is still keeping up. Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) — the broadcasters that make up the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), our government-funded independent news service — still outperform the PRC in places where we go head-to-head.

In Nigeria, China Radio International reaches less than 3% of the population, while VOA reaches a third of all adults each week. In Indonesia, USAGM content reaches almost 33% of all adults weekly, while the PRC’s international outlets collectively only reach 0.7%.

Even the Great Firewall, while increasingly solid, is not impermeable. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our digital traffic spiked as people in China sought credible news. In 2017, reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service that revealed China’s use of “reeducation” camps on Uyghurs in Xinjiang spread widely on Chinese social media. Inside China, the Great Translation Movement, a spontaneous citizen movement, translates and distributes outside content, including from USAGM. Even USAGM coverage of Hong Kong democracy protests made its way into China.

What is our secret weapon? The Great Firewall itself. Chinese people around the world want the power that Xi seeks to deny them — that very power of information to change minds, to drive action, to question authority. They care about the economic, social and political values hidden from them, about U.S.-China relations, about the lives of fellow Chinese as lived elsewhere. Factual, credible information in the face of state-controlled messaging is compelling and powerful. Meanwhile, our adversaries outspend us 10 to one, every year getting smarter, better, more professional, more appealing than ever.