Unrestricted Warfare: Rulelessness is the “New Rule”

In February 1999, the Literature and Art Publishing House administered by People ’s Liberation Army (PLA) published a book entitled Unrestricted Warfare: Thoughts on Warfare and Strategy in the Age of Globalization.  Although published by the Army's Literary and Art Publishing House, it is by no means a literary work, but a book on military theory co-authored by two PLA Air Force senior colonels.  Qiao Liang,  born in 1955, is a prominent writer on military subjects. At the time of this book’s publication, he served as the deputy director of Office of Literary and Artistic Creation, under the Political Department of PLA Air Force. He was promoted to major general afterwards.  The other author, Wang Xiangshui, born in 1954, is a retired Air Force senior colonel.  Both authors were born into military families and grew up during the Cultural Revolution era. Just like Xi Jinping, they belong to the “cultural revolution generation”. 

As the title suggests, this book subverts the strategic thinking and rules of "old-style warfare”, proposes “new types of warfare” and explores military tactics, strategy and organization in the age of globalization.  Not a surprise that it quickly attracted international attention. In November 1999, a few months after the book  was published, the United States Embassy in China wrote a report and abstractly translated the book’s main thesis. In March 2000, the US Naval War College filed an application for reprinting permission with the publisher, which the authors proudly included in the book’s second and third edition. In the next few years, this book was translated into several languages. The term "unrestricted warfare" has become a common term used in both military and non-military contexts.   From 2006 to 2009, Johns Hopkins University held four annual symposia to examine various issues in today’s world and its relationship with the United States from the perspective of "unrestricted warfare."

In China, this book was met with such enthusiasm that it had ten prints in the first year of its first publication. In the next twenty years, the authors did not let it fade out the Chinese people’s attention. In 2009, the authors pushed out a "platinum ten-year commemorative edition".   Five years after that, a “fifteen-year commemorative edition" came to the market. In 2016, the two authors published an enlarged edition with the title Unrestricted Warfare and Anti-Unrestricted Warfare: How the Americans Respond to the New War Ideas Proposed by the Chinese.  Inspired by this book, Chinese military thinkers and researchers have spent  a lot of energy to refine some of the theories outlined in this book and proposed an array of specific ideas in an effort to make the theories operational.

What does the word "unrestricted" [literally “over-limit”] mean? The authors gave the following explanation: "The so-called over-limit means going beyond what is called or can be understood as the limit. Whether it is material, spiritual or technical; and whether it is called 'range', ‘restriction’, ‘restraint’, ‘Boundary’, ‘rules’, ‘law’, ‘limit’, even ‘taboo’ ".

In other words, what the "unrestricted warfare" wants to surpass is not only the rules and restrictions of “old style warfare”, but also all the rules and boundaries formulated by humanity to ensure our survival and development.

 "Traditional war" refers to the confrontation of armed forces between two or more countries in specific territories. This kind of war, whether between countries or regions, or even expanded to the whole world, such as the two world wars, is fought between armed forces. The confrontation is carried out in physical space. Such wars follow certain rules or boundaries, for example, protections for the civilians and civilian facilities, humanitarian treatment to POWs, banning the use of mass destructive weapons, etc. These principles were formally established in a series of international agreements.

However, authors of this book argued that the concept of "territory" has also expanded with the development of the Internet and globalization, therefore, the idea of confrontation between conventional armed forces of two or more countries in a specific physical space can no longer guarantee national security. The notion that “national defense being the country ’s main security goal is somewhat outdated, at least rather inadequate. " Under such circumstances, a country, especially a weak one, must go beyond the limits of "traditional war" in order to win when it is faced with an opponent stronger than itself.

To cite the authors’ own words: "Speaking in terms of war, it can mean the boundary between the battlefield and what is not the battlefield, between what is a weapon and what is not, between soldier and the noncombatant, between the state and the non-state or supra-state. Possibly it may also include technological, scientific, theoretical, psychological, ethical, traditional, customary and other sorts of boundaries. In summary, it means all boundaries which restrict warfare to a specific range. "Although the author tried to explain that the concept of "exceeding limits" refers first of all to transcend ideology, but "transcendence" is not limited merely to "thought".  "Exceeding limits" is not just a pure theory, it also means that in specific operations, "whenever necessary and possible, choose the most appropriate means (including extreme means) beyond the limits and boundaries. "

When it comes to the ethics of human society, the authors made it clear: "…nowadays, judging the effectiveness of a particular method is not mainly a matter of looking at its attributes and whether it meets certain ethical standards, but by whether it conforms to a principle; namely, if  it is the best way to achieve the desired objective. As long as it conforms to this principle, it is the best method. "

That is to say, in the “unrestricted warfare”, there is no distinction between "front and rear", "military and civilian”, country and territory. It is not restrained by moral and ethical limits. Any person and any facility can be considered as military target. To summarize in the author's words, it is "to be a complete military Machiavelli"----in order to achieve the goal, you can do whatever you want. As a matter of fact, “complete military Machiavelli” is PLA’s tradition, as illustrated by the “siege of Changchun”. In 1948, when CCP engaged  the Nationalist Party in a civil war, a military blockage of Changchun, the biggest city in Manchuria at the time, was undertaken by PLA against the Nationalist army stationed inside the city. The blockage lasted for nearly five months. In the end the PLA took the city at the expense of tens and thousands of civilians starving to death.  

When all the boundaries of “old-style warfare” are broken, there is only one reality left:  the entire human society is treated as a battlefield. How to implement "unrestricted warfare" in this vast battlefield then? All that need to be done, according to the authors, is to "shake the kaleidoscope of addition”, namely, to regroup all elements of human society and create " a fantastic and infinite array of tactics." These tactics are divided into three categories, i.e, "military, trans-military and non-military" as detailed in the following table cited from the book:

Military	Trans-Military	Non-Military
Atomic warfare	Diplomatic warfare	Financial warfare
Conventional warfare	Network warfare	Trade warfare
Biochemical warfare	Intelligence warfare	Resources warfare
Ecological warfare	Psychological warfare	Economic aid warfare
Space warfare	Technological warfare	Regulatory warfare
Electronic warfare	Smuggling warfare	Sanction warfare
Guerrilla warfare	Drug warfare	Media warfare
Terrorist warfare	Virtual warfare (deterrence)	Ideological warfare

To operate “unrestricted warfare”, any item in the table can be combined with one or more other items as needed to form "combined tactics". The authors specifically pointed out in the note: "The three categories of operations here are real wars, not metaphors or descriptions." It is clear that according to them, there is only one relationship in human society: war.  The existence of all materials in human civilization has only one significance: to be used for war. This fits very well in the CCP’s line of thinking.

There is no doubt that the United States is the simulated enemy against whom the unrestricted warfare was formulated. For Chinese readers, China,  being the relatively weaker party compared with the United States in terms of   military technology and power  justifies tactics described in Unrestricted Warfare, since conventional tactics may not ensure victory against the US.    

 After the book’s publication, it naturally attracted the attention of the US military and academia. Some military theorists and scholars published research papers and held academic conferences, but they seemed to regard it as just another battle tactic.  One paper I read dismissed it as inexecutable. However, the core of unrestricted warfare theory is not technical but ethical. It is to break the bottom line, abolish all the restrictions and limits, and do things that the other party cannot do to gain a unilateral advantage.  It is best described by an article published in a website named “Asian Century & The Rise of China”. In the article, the author, Liu Zhengzhi, was rhetorically asked this question: “What if the other party applies the same tactics to you and deprived your advantage?” This is his reply: “‘Restricted warfare’ is unique and stands alone. Such military strategy, tactic and methods can only be developed from the background of the Chinese Communist Party. Others won’t be able to copy it even if they want to.”

If you still cannot imagine how to play this ruleless game, let me tell you one story. Shortly   after the 9-11 terrorist attack, a friend from China visited me. This friend had been a longtime advocate for  reform and democracy in China. However, when we talked about the 9-11 attack, he frankly and heartily expressed his admiration for the planners and commanders. Killing 2996 people and inflicting heavy financial loss to the adversary country with a price of only 13 lives, said my friend,  was truly a model for the few to defeat the many and the week to defeat the strong by taking the advisory by surprise.   Most of all, it is impossible for the other side to hit back with the same method.

This is what “unrestricted warfare” is all about.

 Chinese version:  https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?SerialNo=86832