Apparently, the People's Liberation Army (of China) is thinking of broadening their definition of warfare. They have published a book entitled 'Unrestricted Warfare'.

Should U.S. financiers whose trading adversely affects Chinese “red-chip” companies be assassinated? Should Beijing covertly fund political-influence operations in the United States?

Facing a potentially huge nuclear-weapons buildup as well as an even bigger high-tech conventional-arms race to reach parity with the United States and Russia, members of the echelon of senior colonels who will be among tomorrow’s PLA flag officers are looking beyond the nuclear age to a new and more stealthy form of war.”

The book is part of a larger effort within the PLA to develop a means of challenging the United States through “asymmetry” — not by trying to match the United States missile for missile, but by turning the strength of China’s adversaries against themselves as a judo artist subdues a larger, stronger foe. “Understanding and employing the principle of asymmetry correctly allows us always to find and exploit an enemy’s soft spots."

“Hacking into Websites, targeting financial institutions, terrorism, using the media and conducting urban warfare are among the methods proposed...The first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.”

You might want to read the rest of the article (via Robot Wisdom).

This is scary stuff. It's the logical conclusion of where the world has been heading, but it's still very scary. How about this critique of the US military:

The Americans have not been able to get their act together in this area. This is because proposing a new concept of weapons does not require relying on the springboard of new technology, it just demands lucid and incisive thinking. However, this is not a strong point of the Americans, who are slaves to technology in their thinking.

I'll send this stuff to Steven, the expert among my friends, and see what he thinks.