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UNRESTRICTED WARFARE: Thoughts on War and Strategy in a Global Era. By Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. People's Liberation Army Arts Publishers, Beijing, 1999, 227 pp. Available at no cost on the Internet at <http://cryptome.org/cuw.htm>.
The perceptions many of us have of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) often stem from two distinct sources-true accounts of the PLA's ferocity during the Korean War or from high-tech novels by authors such as Tom Clancy and Dale Brown. This year's 50th anniversary of the Korean War brought about a resurgence of interest in the conflict. Books such as Breakout, and military magazines such as the Gazette, recounted the human wave tactics used by the PLA and the steadfast discipline of the Chinese soldier.
Recent books such as Clancy's The Bear and the Dragon and Brown's Fatal Terrain have done little to dispel the impression that the PLA is still a backward thinking military willing to stupidly waste the lives of its men on the battlefield. An underlying theme in their books is that although the PLA has managed to acquire some high-tech weaponry, their tactics and warfighting capabilities remain "second wave."
The Chinese publication Unrestricted Warfare: Thoughts on War and Strategy in a Global Era does much to dispel this notion. Written by two PLA senior colonels, the book provides readers unique insight into how China may fight its next war. Since its publication in February of last year, the book has generated much interest into what the PLA is doing to face the revolution in military affairs (RMA). The RMA is the central focus of the book. The authors painstakingly analyze American theories on RMA and propose ways for China and...