China's Elite Cyber Corps Hone Skills on Virtual Battlefields

The report examines how China built a large-scale, government-supported CTF ecosystem—spanning ministries, universities, and industry—to train cybersecurity talent, harvest techniques, and reduce reliance on foreign technology, with sector-specific contests strengthening expertise. It notes a post-2015 cultural shift that legitimized hacking competitions, the proliferation of more than 50 annual events, and the integration of contests into academic evaluation, contrasting this with lagging Western pipelines. The authors argue this practical, systemic approach has accelerated China’s cyber capabilities and offers lessons for improving talent development in the US and Europe.