Chinese Information Operations and Information Warfare

Chinese Information Operations and Information Warfare are based on concepts and terms similar to those used by the United States, but the Chinese have evolved them to be more suitable and relevant to Chinese culture and to communist doctrine. While the People's Republic of China has adopted the idea of information dominance, its method for going about information dominance differs, using ancient methods such as the Thirty-Six Stratagems.

China's serious interest in Information Warfare (IW) and Information Operations (IO) began after the United States victory in the first Gulf War (1990–1991). U.S. success was the result of information technologies and the total dominance it was able to provide in the battle space. From that point on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) began to seriously invest in and develop its own concepts of IO and IW and what they mean to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The idea of a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) including IO and IW has arisen as a school of thought in Chinese warfare. China's leadership has continuously stressed using asymmetric techniques to counter more powerful nations, such as the United States, and IO and IW are a tools that the PLA are using to achieve their goals.

The United States is a notable exception by having its IO & IW doctrine unclassified and available on the internet; the IO & IW doctrine of most countries is classified. Hence, current information about Chinese policy and doctrine is not freely available. This section summarises the information available. The reader will note that most of it is of US origin, and most of it is five or more years old. Notable exceptions are the publicly released versions of annual reports to the US Congress.

A July 1998 conference held in San Diego, sponsored jointly by the RAND Center for Asia-Pacific Policy and the Taiwan-based Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, "brought together Chinese military experts to discuss the non-hardware side of the People’s Liberation Army’s modernization." In his presentation, James C. Mulvenon stated: "Chinese writings clearly suggest that IW is a solely military subject, and as such, they draw inspiration primarily from U.S. military writings. The net result of this “borrowing” is that many PLA authors’ definitions of IW and IW concepts sound eerily familiar."

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