Chinese Tactics > PART ONE: People’s Liberation Army Forces > Chapter 5: Tactical Information Operations > Characteristics of Psychological Warfare
5-28. Chinese psychological warfare displays four primary characteristics:
- A central role.
- Concurrent hard-kill and soft-kill techniques.
- Long duration.
- Vast scope.
These characteristics are discussed in paragraphs 5-29 through 5-33.
A Central Role
5-29. Psychological warfare has a central role in modern conflict. The informationized battlefield transitioned psychological warfare from a peripheral or auxiliary military activity to one of the most important operational forms. Due to modern media and social integration, psychological warfare efforts can now target the enemy anywhere and at any time. This includes soldiers on the battlefield, in rear areas, or on the home front; civilians, both enemy and others across the world; and decision makers, including those at the highest level. Psychological warfare must be proportional to the conflict; however, a full-scale deep psychological warfare campaign should not be employed in a localized or limited conflict, for instance.
5-30. Every military activity has some value psychologically and politically, and these second-order effects must be considered carefully by commanders. A campaign’s success is no longer measured by casualties, material loss, or territory; instead, it is measured by its overall psychological effect on enemy forces, friendly forces, and neutral or outlying parties around the globe. The ultimate goal of warfare of all types is winning the contest of wills, and this does not always mean that the side winning the tactical battle wins the war.
Concurrent Hard-Kill and Soft-Kill Techniques
5-31. Hard-kill and soft-kill techniques are concurrent in Chinese psychological warfare. Hard kill and soft kill have traditionally been mutually exclusive ideas. However, the PLA believes that modern weapons and a highly integrated approach to psychological warfare can achieve a hard-kill effect through soft-kill capabilities. The use of overwhelming firepower, when coupled with an effective psychological warfare campaign, can create hard-kill results through psychological damage. In addition, new weapons are emerging that are technically nonlethal but have powerful psychological effects: sonic weapons, microwave weapons, and the like. In order to achieve the maximum deterrent effect, both physical and psychological hard-kill capabilities must be considered. More-traditional soft-kill capabilities, such as propaganda and media manipulation, should also be fully integrated into campaign psychological warfare.
Long Duration
5-32. Psychological warfare commences long before formal hostilities begin, and it continues long after they are concluded. It is ultimately tied to a nation’s collective morale, unity, and spirit, and so it lasts a far longer period than do tactical or even strategic military operations. Subtle or covert psychological warfare activities—those that fall far beneath the threshold of response—should be practiced long before active conflict commences. These will naturally lean more toward the defense, buoying the friendly population’s will and morale, ensuring information advantage in media across the globe, and so on. Campaign psychological warfare should also commence as early as possible in order to set the right information environment; to fool, deceive, and trick the enemy; and to erode the enemy’s will. Similarly, psychological warfare operations continue long after hostilities are over. One should attempt to control—or at least influence—the post-conflict historical narrative, while using psychological warfare principles to ensure long-lasting peace and stability.
Vast Scope
5-33. The scope of psychological warfare is vast. Psychological warfare activities stretch across entire regions of the globe, and they can target any individual or organization. The PLA’s view of psychological warfare is likely influenced by—or influences—its understanding of Comprehensive National Power: the idea that a nation’s strength is not only military and economic, but also political, diplomatic, cultural, and religious in nature. Psychological warfare activities can influence or target anything within any of these fields, and they render the battlefield wholly nonlinear, making coordinated attack and defense not only complicated, but perhaps one and the same. Achieving psychological superiority in conflict establishes a baseline advantage for one’s side that permeates to the lowest tactical echelons, and it can enable a technologically or tactically inferior force to prevail in the face of otherwise insurmountable odds.