Publication date:
21 March 2017Length of book:
216 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498537070
The turn of the century was accompanied by two historically significant phenomena. One was the emergence of computer networks as a vital component of advanced militaries and interdependent global economic systems. The second concerned China’s rise on the global stage through economic reforms that led to sustained growth and military modernization. At the same time, Chinese government policies and actions have drawn international criticisms including persistent allegations of online espionage, domestic Internet censorship, and an increased military capability, all of which utilize computer networks. These threat perceptions are heightened by a lack of transparency. Unlike the United States or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, China does not articulate its strategic doctrine. Further, open source material on this topic is often contradictory, cursory, and unclear due, in part, to the absence of consensus on cyber-related terminology and the infancy of this field. With a focus on the period 1998 to 2016, this book identifies and analyzes the strategic context, conceptual framework, and historical evolution of China’s cyber warfare doctrine.
WITHOUT DOUBT, THERE IS MUCH OF BOTH VALUE AND INTEREST IN THIS work, despite its relatively short length (only 150 pages of actual reading text). This is an area which, almost on a daily basis, is at the forefront of national and international news stories: the concepts, as well as the practicalities, of cyber warfare necessitate serious, academic study, away from newspaper headlines and commentary by journalists and/or political pundits. Such analysis is even more pressing when undertaken in relation to one of the most important member states of the international community: the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In choosing to examine the PRC’s cyber warfare capability, both intellectual and physical, Jason Fritz is to be warmly thanked for allowing the reader, both specialist and non-specialist alike (the book is written in an accessible way), the opportunity to peer behind the cyber ‘Bamboo Curtain’ and gain an insight into how the PRC has approached and developed its views on this important aspect of contemporary warfare.