Drawing lessons from the Ukraine crisis, a top Chinese general urged greater integration of novel capabilities, including artificial intelligence, with conventional warfare tactics ahead of any confrontation with the West.
A new genre of hybrid warfare has emerged from the Ukraine conflict, with the intertwining of “political warfare, financial warfare, technological warfare, cyberwarfare, and cognitive warfare,” General Wang Haijiang (汪海江), commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Western Theater Command, wrote in a front-page article in the official Study Times on Monday.
In the name of national security and to fend off perceived threats from the West, Chinese efforts to prepare the country for security challenges have not relaxed, despite a slowing economy and COVID-19. Defense spending is set to rise for the eighth straight year this year.
The scale and sweep of Chinese military preparations are closely watched not just by the West, but also by China’s neighbors and Taiwan.
“At present and in the future, local conflicts and turmoil are frequent, global problems are intensifying, and the world has entered a new period of turmoil and change,” Wang wrote.
“Various ‘black swan’ and ‘gray rhinoceros’ events may occur at any time, especially with the containing, encircling, decoupling, suppressing, and military threats of some Western nations,” he said.
Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars poured into defense spending, China’s armed forces do not have much recent experience in a hot war, with its last — and brief — military conflict in 1979 with Vietnam.
The ability to win is needed to maintain national security, Wang wrote.
The PLA’s combat readiness in a hypothetical war has become a focus in the past few months as China flexes its military muscle over Taiwan, putting itself in potential conflict with the US.
Washington has a policy of “strategic ambiguity” over whether it would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan, but is bound by law to provide the nation with the means to defend itself.
China would seek new military advantages by building up capabilities in areas such as artificial intelligence, information networks, and aviation and space, Wang said.