China's Stealth War on the U.S.

Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu of the Chinese People's Liberation Army caused quite a stir last week when he threatened to nuke "hundreds" of American cities if the U.S. dared to interfere with a Chinese attempt to conquer Taiwan.

In 1998, an official People's Liberation Army publishing house brought out a treatise called "Unrestricted Warfare," written by two senior army colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. This book, which is available in English translation, is well known to the U.S. national security establishment but remains practically unheard of among the general public.

Their different approaches include financial warfare (subverting banking systems and stock markets), drug warfare (attacking the fabric of society by flooding it with illicit drugs), psychological and media warfare (manipulating perceptions to break down enemy will), international law warfare (blocking enemy actions using multinational organizations), resource warfare (seizing control of vital natural resources), even ecological warfare (creating man-made earthquakes or other natural disasters).

Cols. Qiao and Wang write approvingly of Al Qaeda, Colombian drug lords and computer hackers who operate outside the "bandwidths understood by the American military." They envision a scenario in which a "network attack against the enemy" -- clearly a red, white and blue enemy -- would be carried out "so that the civilian electricity network, traffic dispatching network, financial transaction network, telephone communications network and mass media network are completely paralyzed," leading to "social panic, street riots and a political crisis." Only then would conventional military force be deployed "until the enemy is forced to sign a dishonorable peace treaty."

I've come to the conclusion that you have to have a very trusting nature and an appreciable amount of computer illiteracy in order to fall victim to a computer virus. I never have. Social engineering attacks take longer than stack smashing/etc, but there's no way for the computer to stop them if the person using the computer is a schmuck. If there's one thing that can bring Windows to its knees, it's an anti-virus program combined with all those other wunnerful freebie ad-ware programs that you can run in the background.

But I would think it's difficult to write a virus that specifically attacks just the US or just the US and NATO. Viruses go everywhere now and would even return and attack computers in China.

I disagree. Viruses probably are introduced from public parts of the Internet (one would hope), but it probably isn't that difficult to make a virus home in on IP addresses for government/military sites. I think it's already been tried by now and found wanting for the most part. At least as a way of knocking out US/NATO computer networks. Spying is another matter.

Those yellow swine hid the chapter on "Essential Principles" in page 204. I tell you, the Book of the Five Rings has got to be more enjoyable reading than this. Geeze

Some parts are illuminating (from the pdf pages 206-207)

In terms of beyond-limits warfare, there is no longer any distinction between what is or is not the battlefield. Spaces in nature including the ground, the seas, the air, and outer space are battlefields, but social spaces such as the military, politics, economics, culture, and the psyche are also battlefields. And the technological space linking these two great spaces is even more so the battlefield over which all antagonists spare no effort in contending. [3] Warfare can be military, or it can be quasi-military, or it can be non-military. It can use violence, or it can be nonviolent. It can be a confrontation between professional soldiers, or one between newly emerging forces consisting primarily of ordinary people or experts. These characteristics of beyond-limits war are the watershed between it and traditional warfare, as well as the starting line for new types of warfare.

Reading between the lines, I'm getting the impression that a Chinese offensive against the US will involve not only conventional military conflict, but also

Terrorism through proxies
Agents stirring up conflict among different ethnics and races
Subverting our politicians thru bribery, blackmail, whatever
General measures to cripple/damage our economy (alluded to on page 210, with respect to Sherman's tactics in the Civil War)

No matter whether it serves as a line of thought or as a principle guiding combat operations, asymmetry manifests itself to some extent in every aspect of warfare. Understanding and employing the principle of asymmetry correctly allows us always to find and exploit an enemy's soft spots. The main fighting elements of some poor countries, weak countries, and non-state entities have all used "mouse toying with the cat"-type asymmetrical combat methods against much more powerful adversaries. In cases such as Chechniya vs. Russia, Somalia vs. the United States, Northern Ireland guerrillas vs. Britain, and Islamic Jihad vs. the entire West, without exception we see the consistent, wise refusal to confront the armed forces of the strong country head-to-head. Instead, the weaker side has contended with its adversary by using guerrilla war (mainly urban guerrilla war) [9], terrorist war, holy war, protracted war, network war, and other forms of combat. Mostly the weaker side selects as its main axis of battle those areas or battlelines where its adversary does not expect to be hit. The center of mass of the assault is always a place which will result in a huge psychological shock to the adversary.[aside: 9/11?] This use of asymmetrical measures which create power for oneself and make the situation develop as you want it to, is often hugely effective. It often makes an adversary which uses conventional forces and conventional measures as its main combat strength look like a big elephant charging into a china shop. It is at a loss as to what to do, and unable to make use of the power it has. Apart from the effectiveness it displays when used, asymmetry in itself is a rule of action suggested by the golden rule. Of all rules, this is the only one which encourages people to break rules so as to use rules. Also it is an effective prescription for methodical and well-balanced medical treatment for a chronic illness of thought.

This document gives a lot to think about, Thanks, montana233

The more I think about it, the more I'm concluding that China and AlQueda are in bed together, with China

The more I think about it, the more I'm concluding that China and AlQueda are in bed together, with China

If it isn't some grand conspiracy, it's not titillating enough. There are limits to what unconventional warfare can accomplish, and Americans aren't stupid. We survived 9/11, it didn't take us too long to figure out who was responsible, and when we found out, it didn't take us too long to hunt down the perps and kick their asses. Any particular chink in the U.S. armor to some disasterous attack is likely to be dwarfed by China's weaknesses. In terms of the propaganda war, its hard to say whether the paranoia of the people who write this Art of War gobbledygook is trumped by the paranoia of the mouth breathers who read so much into it. If you want to worry about what China can do to us, look at their nukes and their navy. On second thought, focus on their nukes. We obviously shouldn't trust the Chinese as far as we can spit, but even a short, wonderful little war with them is not the best outcome. Nor is economic warfare.

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