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Three Warfares

In 2003 the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and the Central Military Commission (People's Republic of China) approved the concept of “Three Warfares” (san zhong zhanfa 三种战法). Three Warfares consists of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) operational guidance document calling for a “a reinforcement of political work in terms of media warfare, psychological warfare, and legal warfare.” The PLA’s operational guidance document, Regulation on the Political Work presents 100 Case Studies For Each Type of Warfare published by the PLA in January 2005 as a corroborating supplement to the operational guidance document. Three Warfares is consistent with the central role information warfare has assumed in Chinese military writings. Since December 2004, the phrase ‘informatized war’ has largely replaced the phrase ‘local war under high-technology conditions’ in Chinese military strategy writings, and achieving information superiority is seen as the precondition for achieving and maintaining battlefield supremacy. On 14 September 2010, the CPC publicized that the PLA started implementing a revised regulation for political reform aimed at “strengthen[ing] the armed forces’ combat abilities”, and stressed that the PLA should train its abilities to win “Media warfare, psychological warfare and legal warfare” during war and in military operations other than war (MOOTW).

Western Analysis

Recognizing the dissemination and implementation of Three Warfares throughout the PLA, in 2008 the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) International Security Advisory Board recommended “it is essential that the U.S. better understand and effectively respond to China’s comprehensive approach to strategic rivalry, as reflected in its official concept of Three Warfares. If not countered, Beijing […] can precondition key areas of strategic competition in its favor.” The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in 2009 noted the development of the PLA concept and commented, “the concept of the ‘Three Warfares’ is being developed for use in conjunction with other military and non-military operations.”

Experts on the Chinese military such as Dennis Blasko, Roger Cliff, James Mulvenon, and Timothy A. Walton have analyzed the role Three Warfares plays in Chinese military strategy, influencing both contemporary operations and future plans. Analysts have observed the use of Three Warfares’ manipulation of psychological, media, and legal instruments to precondition the battlefield for the use or threat of use of force in episodes such as passage of China’s 2005 Anti-Secession Law aimed at Taiwan, advance of Chinese claims in the South China Sea, China’s 2009 hacking of Google servers in China, and promotion of nationalistic media for domestic consumption. In his 2010 study of Three Warfares, Timothy A. Walton concludes: “The combined employment of Three Warfares with credible PLA forces as part of established operational guidance is likely to achieve significant nonlinear effects. Integrated not only into military campaigns, but China’s larger strategy regarding other applications of power, its relevance will likely continue to grow.”

External links

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