The Tactics China has Been Using to Conduct Irregular Warfare Against the U.S.
There is a great article over at Small Wars Journal that explains the 12 different grey zone strategies that the Chinese Communist Party is currently using against the U.S. For those that follow this issue closely, the tactics will not be surprising, though I have to admit I wasn’t aware of the smuggling of agro-weapons to threaten the U.S. food supply with. Anyway the first tactic of algorithmic cognitive warfare should be very familiar to ROK Drop readers:
While the West treats media and influence as mere public relations, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) integrates strategic cognitive communications at a structural level. Reorganized into the PLA Information Support Force and historically anchored by the political warfare units of Base 311, these specialized operators execute what Beijing terms the “Three Warfares” (psychological, public opinion, and legal warfare). As outlined by researchers at the Project 2049 Institute in their specialized reports on PLA political warfare and the Global Taiwan Institute in their strategic briefs, these entities deploy industrial-scale digital networks, bot ecosystems, and tailored disinformation engineered to inflame Western partisan divides and paralyze political decision-making.
I recommend reading the rest of the article at the link. However, due to the political partisanship in D.C. I don’t see how the author’s recommendations will ever get implemented outside of a major Chinese provocation forcing a whole of government and society approach in response.
