Chinese Information Warfare: A Phantom Menace or Emerging Threat?

Mao Tse-tung counseled, "To achieve victory we must as far as possible make the enemy blind and deaf by sealing his eyes and ears, and drive his commanders to distraction by creating confusion in their minds." Few concepts mesh so contextually with Mao than the Chinese approach to Information Warfare (IW). As the People's Republic of China struggles with its national military strategy, IW offers opportunities to win wars without the traditional clash of arms. In this monograph, Mr. Toshi Yoshihara explores what he perceives to be China's pursuit of IW as a method of fighting asymmetric warfare against the United States. Largely imitative of U.S. thoughts, literature, and practices on IW, he believes the Chinese are seeking ways to adapt it to their own style of warfare. Paradoxically, he observes that the Chinese have not gleaned their intelligence through espionage, but through careful scrutiny of U.S. IW in practice. The Persian Gulf War and Kosovo conflict have provided ample largess to the Chinese ...