While the Chinese term for ‘hybrid warfare’(混合战争) is a derivation of English, its strategic utility against adversaries can be as traced as early as The Art of War (孙子兵法) of the fifth century BCE. 1 It was not until the late 1990s, however, that a book written by two Chinese generals entitled Unrestricted Warfare (超限战) became the bedrock of Western understanding of Chinese views on hybrid warfare. 2 Still, this narrow emphasis on a few Chinese texts misses the complexity of perspectives on and employment of hybrid warfare in China. 3

To provide a more comprehensive overview, the author surveyed 192 Chineselanguage writings on hybrid warfare. 4 This research on essays by experts from China’s military, industrial and academic complexes reveals not only a multiplicity of definitions, but also a wide range of cases of application. Among these, Chinese strategists cite a variety of arenas in which hybrid warfare may be applied, including disruption through trade wars, information manipulation in cyberspace and military integration of advanced technologies.