CHINESE CONCEPT OF UNRESTRICTED WARFARE – CHARACTERISTICS AND CONTEMPORARY USE

Abstract

Republic of China is one of the most important aspects of the changing global distribution of powers. It prompts investigations into the Chinese war-making practice and the Chinese line of thought about warfare, thus facilitating the understanding of decisions made by Beijing authorities. The objective of this article is to outline the Chinese concept of unrestricted warfare – its origins, characteristics and contemporary use. The principal research issue resulting from the assumed objective was to respond to the following question: What is unrestricted warfare, and how it is currently used by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army? The following research methods were employed to solve the research queries: a monographic method, a document examination method, literature analysis and criticism, and methods of analysis and synthesis. Considering their preliminary investigations, the authors formulated the following research hypothesis: the concept of unrestricted warfare is one of the most important Chinese concepts describing its war-making practice and rivalry with the United States. Although it was developed over 20 years ago, it still forms a valid selection of war-making methods and forms. Non-military forms of warfare, including financial warfare, trade warfare, resources warfare, economic warfare or regulation warfare are particularly important and frequently used by the People’s Republic of China.