China's “Unrestricted Warfare” and Global Strategy

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Member of Policy Proposal Committee of JFSS Masatoshi Fujitani

Introduction
“It's where the G7 members spent all of their time. But every one of the nations that was at that meeting this morning was deeply aware of the disinformation campaign that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in to try and deflect from what has really taken place here,” and “There was a lot of discussion today amongst the G7 about the intentional disinformation campaign that China has been and continues to be engaged in. You see it. You see it in the social media. You see it in remarks from senior people inside the Chinese Communist Party talking about whether this was a U.S. – U.S. brought to China,”1  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a G7 press conference held on March 25, 2020.
 
Why dare China engage in the underhanded disinformation campaign that Pompeo criticized? Having the world's second largest economic power, China must be a global leader as a guardian of the justice with duty that a major country should fulfill in the international society. Besides, although the most significant policies are construction of stable relationships with neighboring countries and cooperative diplomacy, why does China cause many problems such as political information manipulation, propaganda activities, cyber terrorism, theft of cutting-edge technologies, suppression of human rights in Hong Kong, the Tibet and Uygur autonomous regions and territorial disputes?
 
The following reasons would be essential of understanding above-mentioned China's activities.
 
First, by any possible means, to safeguard the one-party rule by the Communist Party of China (CPC) corresponds with protecting great achievements of the communism that Mao Zedong and other party members attained.
 
Second, to prevail the thought over China that to safeguard CPC's interest coincides with ensuring the Chinese national interest, with a goal of integrating Chinese people through fusion of ideology and nationalism.
 
Third, the peripheries such as the Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Uygur autonomous regions must be protective walls around China and be under control at any high cost.
 
Fourth, by promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China must build the stronger relations with the Europe and the West Asia, and deters Japan, the U.S. and Russia with securing its strategic resources.
 
Fifth, China must ensure both security of sea lanes to transport vital resources for its economic development and route towards the Pacific Ocean, by annexing Taiwan, the South China Sea and the Senkaku Islands.
 
We can know about above-mentioned China's strategies in “Unrestricted Warfare,” a book written in 1998 by a major-general and a colonel in the People's Liberation Army Air Force, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. The book argues that high-tech warfare updated the concept of weapons in which non-war weapons became to be regarded as war-weapons and how a country can defeat opponents with the combination of military and non-military methods regardless of nations and land-sea-and-air fields.2
 
The highest concern of “Unrestricted Warfare” is a concept of “non-military war operations.” Qiao and Wang highly recognized that the U.S. had proposed a concept of “military operations other than war” arguing that, being aware of less possibilities of large wars amid great powers after the Gulf War, the U.S. mobilizes the army, to create more domains, in a various of “non-war” areas including responding to natural disasters and pandemics. The two authors, however, criticized the U.S. saying that the phrase of “military operations other than war” was not enough to spread thinking areas, as well as clarifying that total dimensional warfare could be fought by adding “non-military war operations” containing a variety of operations other than military ones.3 And now, China, actually adopting several operations in “Unrestricted Warfare,” is aiming to overcome the U.S. with a view to becoming a “rule-maker” in the international world.
 
In this article, I describe what “Unrestricted Warfare” means, and, considering some cases, explain how it has been carried out. Lastly, this article considers what and which positions Japan should adopt to keep peace and security of the international relations and prevent China's “Unrestricted Warfare.”
 
1. What is “Unrestricted Warfare”?
For more detailed consideration of “Unrestricted Warfare,” let's have a look at key factors as follows:
 
“views all means which transcend the military realm as weapons”
 
“There is nothing in the world today that cannot turn a weapon. And this requires that our understanding of weapons must have an awareness that breaks through all boundaries.”
 
“From our points of view, all can be included in the ranks of new-concept weapons such as; a single man-made stock-market crash, a single computer virus invasion, a fluctuation in the hostile country's exchange rates or a single gossip or scandal of a head of the hostile country exposed on the Internet.”
 
“In a possible future war, the laws of victory will make extremely harsh demands on the victor.”
 
“Achieve objectives by fair means or foul, that is the most important spiritual legacy of this Italian political thinker of the Renaissance, Niccolò Machiavelli.”
 
“The genuine intention of introducing the concept of “unrestricted (exceeding limits)” is, the first of all, to transcend ideologically. Secondarily, it means, when we take action, to transcend limits and boundaries when it is necessary, when they can be transcended, and select the most appropriate means (including extreme means). It does not mean that extreme means must be selected always and everywhere.”
 
“Warfare is now escaping from the boundaries of bloody massacre, and exhibiting a trend towards low casualties, or even none at all, and yet high intensity. This is information, financial, trade, and other entirely new-form warfare, which are new areas opened up in the domain of warfare. In this sense, there is now no domain which cannot be used as warfare, and there is almost no domain which does not have offensive forms.”
 
As used in this book, “Unrestricted Warfare” has the meaning of "using all means, including armed force or nonarmed force, military and non-military, and lethal and non-lethal means to compel the enemy to accept one's interests," namely taking advantage of all means without considering the prohibition of chemical and biological weapons and land mines. The authors emphasized that, most importantly, “Unrestricted Warfare” is a concept of asymmetrical warfare targeting on the weak points of opponents by unexpected methods. They also provide 24 methods such as; assassination, terrorist bombings, drug smugglings, biological and chemical weapons, poison gases, cyberterrorism, financial disturbance, campaign assaults, environmental destruction, media warfare. With combination of these methods, enemies can be controlled by all means including disinformation, deceit and crimes beyond common-sense, ethic standard, regulations and taboos. “Unrestricted Warfare” was defined as warfare in which, beyond all the restrictions, the various non-military means, though the military is also important, can be used for national interest, for example, trade, financial, opinion manipulation by using SNS, information warfare, fake news, cyberterrorism, spreading conspiracy theories of incidental accidents and cases. That is to say, the book predicts that a future war will be much harsher beyond time and space, both in every realm and by all means, as well as taking off boundaries between military and non-military domain and between peace and wartime.4
 
Then, in which domains, places and situations is “Unrestricted Warfare” carried out? Two typical cases are described in the following chapter as “Unrestricted Warfare,” which is currently witnessed in many regions committed by China. The one is the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is still damaging the world. The other is the BRI projects, which is put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
 
2. “Unrestricted Warfare” concerning COVID-19
An article in The New York Times on August 19, 2020, reported a part of an internal report written by the U.S. intelligence officials and CIA. They deemed that Chinese local officials had not informed the central government of the possibilities of the virus spread since the virus in Wuhan had begun to spread in January, as they feared to be accused by the central government and hid the fact intentionally or underestimated the severity. Furthermore, the report pointed out the responsibility of the central government along with the local officials as the government covered up the initial situation from the international commodity including WHO although it understood the severity belatedly, deteriorating the outbreak. Additionally, the report added that China had tried to diffuse false information on the origin of the coronavirus since February.5
 
In this January, just when the novel coronavirus erupted, the Chinese government ordered the embassies all over the world to secure two billions of face masks and 400 million sets of protective gears and medical goggles. Face masks, therefore, vanished at once from drugstores, pharmacies or E-commerce sites in Japan.6
 
Although China can't be absolved of responsibility of covering up the origination of the new coronavirus that has still killed a number of people and broken down the world economy, we can find out the dreadfulness of “Unrestricted Warfare” in the fact that China engaged in the campaign to shift responsibility of the pandemic to the U.S. in addition to the cove-up.
 
Disregarding that the U.S. was struggling to take effective countermeasures against the pandemic, China, at first, gave medical aid to Italy and Iran and stopped momentum of the virus spread with Wuhan lockdown before it declared the victory over the pandemic to the world. In addition, the Chinese government came to allege that the U.S. Army would bring the virus into China when they participated in the 2019 Military World Games (the 7th CISM Military World Games) with 9,308 athletes from 109 countries held in last October, in Wuhan. We can't believe in China's allegation due to insufficient grounds.
 
The Chinese government must not distort the facts with using sophistries, fearing that the public dissatisfactions could be targeted at it under the pandemic and recession. Meanwhile, Japan must pursue the truth without being confused by Beijing's campaign.
 
3. “Unrestricted Warfare” in BRI
The various projects under the BRI, called "the Silk Road Economic Belt," are currently in progress all over the world, collaborating with over 120 countries including a member of G7 like Italy, and Greece as a part of European countries, many of which are taking anti-Chinese positions. Also, as cooperative candidates are increasing gradually, China possibly has relationship even with Russia. The BRI, which is mainly the economic project, is aiming at securement of energy and resources, expansion of diplomatic relations with friendly nations and establishment of military supremacy. Therefore, we can't understand China's real intents as long as focusing on its economic activities only. The BRI covers a variety of fields such as politics, medical care, education, culture, media and national security, and it has some problems at the moment. One is “Debt-Trap” diplomacy, by which China extracts concessions for infrastructure from a debtor country which is induced into a default after Chinese companies complete the improvement of infrastructure such as ports of a debtor country imposed excessive loan on. Many poor countries in Asia and Africa fall into the trap. The other problem is “Digital Silk Road” project, in which China is engaging in expanding the platform of internet and its operation in the BRI. “Unrestricted Warfare” in cyberspace is being carried out deeply and silently.
 
Both “Debt-Trap” Diplomacy and “Digital Silk Road Project” are major points of conflict between the U.S. and China as well.
 
 “Debt-Trap” Diplomacy
As recent cases, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said after the meeting with China held on last December 3rd that El Salvador would receive a “gigantic Grant Aid,” not disclosing the investment amount, including infrastructure improvement such as sports stadiums, water treatment plants, libraries and facilities for sightseeing. In a joint statement, he also showed a willingness to jointly build the BRI in addition to emphasizing support for the One-China Policy and firm refusal to oppose the policy. Although the Central American nation highly depended on the U.S. economy and had longtime diplomatic relations with Pro-American Taiwan, Centre-right President Bukele, who was inaugurated as a Salvadoran leader this June, has taken over Pro-China policies after the former left Sánchez Cerén Administration switched from Taiwan to China last year.7
 
We can see other cases in which many countries have fallen into China's “Debt-Trap” Diplomacy with unsustainable debt.
 
Ethiopia has received various infrastructure investments from China, for construction of the headquarter of the African Union, high-ways, hydroelectric and wind power stations, industrial parks, railways, a national communications network and so forth. The landlocked country in East Africa, mockingly called “African China,” showed the world's highest economic growth rate in 2014 while the total debt amount from China has reached about 59% of the Gross Domestic Products. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), is from this country, being often criticized of his favorable attitude towards China regarding COVID-19.
 
The former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who formed the authoritarian regime with sharing key governmental positions with his families and spreading corruption widely, could not refund to China a loan of around $1.3 billion for the construction of the Hambantota port. As a result, the port was substantially ceded on a 99-year lease to China in 2017, when the President Maithripala Sirisena, who was successor to Rajapaksa, signed a contract with Chinese companies.
 
Malaysia made infrastructural investments in strong ties with China during the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak and still owed MYR 1 trillion (approx. $242 billion) in May of 2018, when Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was inaugurated again. As he rethought the public projects led by China, in January of the next year, he officially cancelled the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project worth MYR 81 billion (approx. $19.6 billion) in addition to signing an agreement with China in April on the reduction of the construction cost to MYR 21.5 billion (approx. $5.2 billion) for Malaysian finance reform.
 
Expansion of “Digital Silk Road” Project
In China, companies and research institutions are inextricably linked to the government and under its strong influence. Furthermore, the National Intelligence Law requires all organizations and citizens in China collaborate in intelligence activities and enables the government to request Chinese companies all over the world to hand over data and information regarding optical fiber cables, undersea cables, positioning satellites, 5G network, E-commerce and data centers.
 
China possesses the most positioning satellites that send electric waves to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a part of which is GPS equipped in smartphones and navigations systems. Unlike the U.S. products, Chinese GPS can transmit limited data in both directions. The China's GNSS, called BeiDou and BeiDou2, are connected to navigations systems for vehicles and vessels, and drones as well as smartphones. While companies of the U.S. and associated countries have laid most of intercontinental undersea cables, providing over 90% of information and communications, Chinese companies are recently coming into the field as well.
 
The AI surveillance system market is dominated by just a few numbers of Chinese companies while the SNS market by Facebook and Chinese companies. China has been collecting large quantities of data from surveillance cameras, cable data transmission and SNS, and AI is necessary to process these data more immediately and effectively, but it is also provided by China.
 
It is natural that the U.S. be more cautious against HUAWEI, a Chinese large enterprise, in terms of security since the company leads the world market share of 5G telecommunication system, and other companies totally keep 36% of the 5G-related patent shares as well.8
 
4. Conclusion
What positions should Japan adopt for the prevention of China's implement of “Unrestricted Warfare” and for maintaining peace and security in the international relationships? I suggest an option that Japan makes an effort with “Economic Statecraft (ES)” which has been paid little attention to until now.
 
“Economic Statecraft” is securing geopolitical and National Interests by economic means namely; seven fields of “trade,” “investment,” “economic sanction,” “cyberspace,” “development aid,” “financial and monetary policy” and “energy,” which were conceptualized in the U.S. in 2014. Besides, the country realized that cyber-attacks, which can't be recognized as warfare, should be considered as a field of ES weakening opponent's economy.
 
The reason why the U.S. started to move into action, to the extent of such severity, to construct the effective form of the deployment of ES is that China has continued “Unrestricted Warfare” that was the security policy including ES over 20 years ago.
 
Also in Japan, considering that China has been strategically involved in recruitment of high-rank officials in the International Organizations, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) legislators' group for rule-making strategies (the chairman is Akira Amari, the chairperson in LDP's Research Commission on the Tax System) made proposals on that the Japanese government, especially the Cabinet Secretariat, train up human resources capable to take major posts in international organizations. In addition, the group is going to request the government, not only to add to laws such as the Telecommunications Business Act some closures saying “to take heed to the security risks” for regulations against Chinese applications, but also to reinforce the intelligence abilities to look into the potential for data leakage through Chinese applications. 
 
The government has ordered the economy section of the National Security Secretariat to collect information on Chinese applications along with the group.
 
Although the Japan's ES is long overdue in comparison with the U.S. and China, it is required that Japan, for the barrier against China's “Unrestricted Warfare,” form the economic and military alliances with the U.S., India, Australia and New Zealand, and the international network with a long-term view.
 
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[1] “Secretary Michael R. Pompeo At a Press Availability,” U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE, March 25, 2020, https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo-at-a-press-availability-3/
[2]  Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, “Unrestricted Warfare,” Kadokawa, 2020.
[3]  Toshifumi Kokubun, “Economic Statecraft,” Nikkei Business Publications, pp.36-39, 2020.
[4]  Tsuyoshi Shinji, “China’s Unrestricted Warfare and the new corona virus,” Monthly Security Forum, September issue, Vol. 26, No. 9, pp.41-50, 2020.
[5]  The JoongAng Ilbo, “米情報当局『中国武漢市が新型コロナ情報隠した』と結論…責任めぐる議論再点火か,” August 20, 2020, 
[6]  Yukihiro Hasegawa, “感染爆発直前、中国が極秘にマスク買い占め指令,” Monthly Hanada, July issue, pp.48-49, 2020.
[7]  Jiji.Com, “中国、エルサルバドルに巨額協力、「一帯一路」参加取り付け,” December 5, 2019, https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2019120500232&g=int
[8]  Harbor Business Online, “一帯一路の成長でアメリカが警戒する『デジタル・シルクロード』における中国の戦略,” January 28, 2020, https://hbol.jp/211778
[9]  Yomiuri Shimbun Online, “TikTok念頭、中国発アプリ制限を提言へ…自民議連,” July 28, 2020, https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/20200728-OYT1T50078/