Cyber attack Photo: VCG

The US National Security Agency (NSA), the intelligence community's premier global eavesdropping agency, is reportedly set to undergo its most extensive internal restructuring in at least a decade, with China designated as one of several new mission-focused organizations.

Reflecting a shift by Washington from siloed competition to a whole-of-system approach toward China, a Chinese analyst warned that the US' ongoing China-targeted cyber infiltration and intelligence work, amid calls for stable ties,  could steadily erode bilateral mutual trust.

According to The Washington Post on Sunday, citing current and former officials who briefed on the emerging plan, the new design is the brainchild of Army Gen. Joshua M. Rudd, the NSA director. 

Rudd's initiative calls for the creation at the NSA's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, of five new organizations inside the agency, in artificial intelligence, China, cybersecurity, combat support or warfighting, and global intelligence, per the report.

Calling it a "fast and far-reaching reorganization", cybersecurity media outlet The Record from Recorded Future News citing multiple sources familiar with the matter reported that the changes are a bid to get the unique intelligence it gathers to real-world battlefields faster.

Each will be led by a newly elevated "mission director", and this new organizational configuration will better reflect the NSA's "current and future priorities," Rudd believes, The Washington Post reported. The mission heads will have the "effective" authorities of an NSA deputy director, one former official familiar with the plan was quoted in the report as saying.

The restructuring is reportedly scheduled to be announced in October with the goal of realizing full operations in mid-January 2027, per media reports. 

At a minimum, these moves indicate that China is becoming increasingly central to US intelligence and cybersecurity priority considerations, as Washington seems to be further integrating strategic competition with China more closely across AI, cyberspace, military operations, and global intelligence, Shen Yi, director of the International Research Institute of Global Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Monday.

These developments further suggest that US cyber reconnaissance, intelligence collection, technological penetration, and capability-building efforts targeting China could intensify, though they should not be interpreted as evidence that any specific attack has already begun, the expert warned. 

"More attention should be paid to the changing organizational logic: Washington is shifting from siloed, single-domain competition toward a more systemic approach spanning agencies, technologies, and mission areas," Shen said, citing the NSA, FBI, and CISA's recent joint security advisory on Chinese AI companies, which he said further underscores the growing convergence of cybersecurity, AI, and strategic competition with China.

The US moves targeting China cannot be viewed in isolation. During a rare public speaking appearance, the deputy CIA director, Michael Ellis, said this month that the US is engaging in a broader range of espionage against China, including Chinese companies, The New York Times reported on September 8.

The US has been widely condemned as the world's largest "hacking empire" and "eavesdropping empire", with a blemished record and solid evidence to prove it, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a press conference in August, adding that China has grave concerns with the US on cybersecurity. 

"Previously exposed cases, including the NSA attacking and pre-positioning capability to disrupt China's National Time Service Center, have laid bare the US administration's dangerous practice of carrying out cyberattacks on China's critical infrastructure and pre-positioning cyberattack capabilities for potential large-scale destructive operations in the future," Lin emphasized.

Shen noted that US strategy toward China reflects a "persistent dual logic." On the one hand, Washington recognizes that both countries are globally consequential powers and that serious miscalculation in high-risk areas such as the military, cyberspace, and AI could impose enormous costs on the US itself, which creates a need for communication and competition management. 

On the other hand, a deep-seated hegemonic impulse remains, driving efforts to leverage US advantages in intelligence, technology, cyber capabilities, and alliances to intensify pressure on China, the expert continued.

The problem is that Washington's emphasis on stable relations will ring hollow if it continues to expand cyber penetration and intelligence activities against China, further eroding the foundation of mutual trust. The US should recognize that "competition management" should not mean increasing pressure on China while expecting Beijing to exercise restraint. Genuine stability requires mutual respect and restraint on both sides, he added.