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China info warfare

U.S. intelligence agencies have obtained a Chinese military book that will provide new insights into the Chinese military’s information-warfare plans.

The book is being translated, but Inside the Ring obtained its table of contents, which reveals Beijing’s priorities for high-technology warfare using computers and electronic-warfare weapons.

The 322-page book, “Information Warfare Theory,” was published in May 2007 and written by Wang Zhengde, president of the People’s Liberation Army Information Engineering University.

Like other military and Communist Party writings, such books are not often made public, and when they are, they provide U.S. intelligence and military specialist with valuable clues to the military thinking and plans of China’s secretive military.

The book states that information warfare is the “core” of China’s high-tech military-reform efforts, which are referred to as “informationized” warfare — what the U.S. military has called the “revolution in military affairs.” It involves integrating various weapons and intelligence with advanced command-and-control systems and mobile, combined-arms forces.

Key features of Chinese information warfare are “switching freely between offense and defense,” “striking the enemy’s fatal targets,” and “instant and flexible mobility and real-time responses.”

The book also notes that outer space is “the commanding point” for information warfare, perhaps an indirect reference to China’s growing anti-satellite weapons capabilities.

The Chinese military also views electronic warfare, cyberwarfare and psychological warfare as the “main battlefields” for high-tech war.

Key technologies identified by the Chinese for information warfare include the know-how to conduct radar detection, photoelectric reconnaissance, computer-network warfare and acoustic reconnaissance.

“Assault” techniques include jamming radar and telecommunications systems, “acoustic” anti-submarine warfare and strikes on photoelectric spy satellites, as well as “network attack.”

The book also contains sections on anticipated developments, including “sky-based” information-warfare weapons and unmanned, aerial vehicle information weapons.

The Ring expects to report more details about the book in coming weeks.

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