In the early hours of Jan. 3, 2026, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro was captured and taken away by U.S. special forces. At first glance, it looked like another dramatic military raid. In reality, it marked something far more consequential: the moment a dictator was hunted down, located and neutralized not primarily by soldiers, but by data.
This was not just the fall of a regime figure. It was the execution of what I would call the world’s first “digital death sentence” — a takedown carried out by algorithms, networks and artificial intelligence long before boots touched the ground.
In markets and media, attention quickly turned to the technologies that may have enabled the operation. Palantir’s AI analytics platform Gotham and Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network were widely cited as possible tools. The speculation was telling. The idea that satellite connectivity, pattern-recognition algorithms and real-time analytics could track electricity usage, communications traffic and behavioral routines — and convert them into arrest coordinates — no longer sounds like science fiction. It sounds like doctrine.
I call this “Cheonmang warfare,” borrowing from the ancient saying: “The net of heaven is vast; though its mesh is wide, it lets nothing slip.” What we are witnessing is the return of that idea, updated for the 21st century — a form of digital neo-imperial warfare where no individual, no state, can hide once caught inside the net.
Peter Thiel and Alex Karp: War philosophy written in code
This net did not emerge accidentally. Its intellectual architecture can be traced to Silicon Valley figures such as Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, the founders of Palantir.
In Zero to One, Thiel famously wrote that “competition is for losers.” That line reads differently when applied to warfare. War, in this worldview, is not a contest between equals. It is the enforcement of monopoly — overwhelming dominance achieved through technology an adversary cannot replicate or counter.
Alex Karp has been even more explicit. In his book The Technological Republic and in repeated public lectures, he argues that democracy must be defended with “hard” technological power. AI, surveillance and data fusion are not morally neutral tools, he insists; they are weapons in a civilizational struggle. Values, in his framework, must be protected by sharp instruments.
Palantir’s Gotham system has already demonstrated its effectiveness in Ukraine, where it reportedly analyzed real-time data relationships to help map Russian troop movements and support precision strikes. Warfare, as I see it, is no longer about occupying territory. It is about controlling the invisible network that governs perception, coordination and will.
If Palantir is the brain of Cheonmang warfare, Starlink is its nervous system.
Tens of thousands of low-Earth-orbit satellites have stitched the planet into a continuous communications mesh. The implications are staggering. Whoever controls that mesh can observe, prioritize, disrupt or restore connectivity in real time — a power that can exceed that of sovereign states.
Musk’s role goes beyond infrastructure. In the second Trump administration, he led the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, dismantling bureaucratic layers and replacing them with algorithmic systems. Government itself is being rewritten as software. In this model, Palantir analyzes, Starlink transmits, and the state executes. Administration becomes computation. Power becomes code.
U.S.-China rivalry and the petrodollar
The backdrop to Maduro’s fall was not just oil. It was currency, systems and control.
Under Maduro, Venezuela expanded yuan-denominated oil transactions with China, directly challenging the petrodollar system. That was intolerable. The removal of Maduro sent a message far beyond Caracas: those who attempt to defect from the dollar-based order risk being caught, mapped and erased by a technological net.
Officially, Washington frames the operation as a judicial pursuit tied to drug trafficking and terrorism charges dating back to 2020. Strategically, the signal is unmistakable. The rivalry with China has moved beyond tariffs and trade. It is now a contest over who controls the world’s operating system.
Xi Jinping’s response: Intelligent warfare and the data Great Wall
China has understood the message — and is responding in kind.
Beijing has declared “intelligent warfare” a national strategy, pushing to AI-enable every military domain, strengthen theater-level command systems and build what I would call a “data Great Wall.” The goal is simple: ensure U.S. algorithms cannot see inside China, while developing China’s own intelligent command and control platforms.
Russia, meanwhile, is pursuing a different path — electromagnetic disruption and electronic warfare designed to blind satellites, scramble algorithms and recreate a synthetic fog of war. The world is entering an intelligent Cold War: a U.S.-led transparent net versus China and Russia’s opaque barriers.
South Korea’s dilemma: Technology sovereignty or dependency
So where does South Korea stand in this clash of technology empires?
Musk has warned that South Korea’s demographic collapse could lead to national decline. Read differently, it sounds like an invitation — fill the gap with U.S. AI, U.S. robots, U.S. systems. Become a node inside someone else’s net.
That would be a fatal mistake.
South Korea’s true strategic leverage lies in semiconductors. HBM4 and next-generation chips are not just commercial assets; they are strategic weapons. Without them, Palantir’s brain stalls. Starlink’s nerves go numb. This is semiconductor deterrence.
South Korea must pursue a centrist strategy: interoperable with U.S. systems, but anchored in sovereign AI, sovereign data and independent decision authority. Participation without subordination. Alignment without absorption.
An emperor weaves his own net
The Cheonmang warfare is already here. Borders drawn by lines on maps are losing relevance. Power now belongs to those who control the densest, most precise networks.
In an order conceived by Thiel, executed by Musk and declared by Trump, South Korea faces a clear choice: remain entangled in someone else’s net, or learn to weave its own.
Those who control data command power. Those who control algorithms become rulers. This is not theory. It is the reality I am witnessing — and the warning I record in 2026.
The author is a senior columnist of the Aju Business Daily.
About the author:
▷Korea University, philosophy ▷Ph.D. in political science, Chung-Ang University ▷Reporter, Donga Broadcasting and Shindonga ▷Board member, EBS ▷Board member, Yonhap News Agency ▷Member, Press Arbitration Commission ▷Emeritus professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Gachon University ▷Honorary director, Gachon University CEO Academy ▷Strategic thought researcher
* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
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