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The Chinese Way of War
Andrew Scobell
INTRODUCTIONThis chapter examines the Chinese Way of War over the span of several thousand
years. Particular attention will be paid to military operations in theory and practice
during the past ninety years—since the rise of the Communist movement in the
1920s and the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. This period
will hereafter be referred to as the ‘contemporary era’. At the outset, it may be
worthwhile to state what this chapter is not: it is not a military history of China;
nor does it recount in chronological fashion the course of successive military
campaigns. These can befound elsewhere. 1 Instead, this chapter explores what appear
to be key enduring themes in Chinese military strategy through the centuries. This
necessarily requires a short introduction to the larger topic of Chinese strategic
thought and a brief survey of contemporary China’s evolving military doctrine before
focusing on what are widely considered the hallmarks of Chinese operational art.
The reader should be alerted to the fact that there are two contrasting inter-
pretations of Chinese strategic thought. One emphasizes the uniqueness or
‘Chineseness’ of military strategy, while the second highlights the universalism
of strategy and warfare stressing common themes and approaches among cul-
tures. The former approach tends to dominate the thinking among both Chinese
and non-Chinese soldiers, scholars, and analysts. 2 The latter approach is not as
widespread, but it, nevertheless, has strong adherents. 3 This writer believes that
there are key commonalities across strategic traditions, but he is also convinced
that there are important and distinctive cultural elements within traditions.
Throughout this chapter, attention will be drawn to universal themes and chal-
lenges in the operational art that are discernible in the Chinese case.
The underlying logic of the uniqueness approach stems from the fact that
China possesses one of the world’s great civilizations with arguably the most
impressive and enduring record of writings on warfare and strategy. Indeed, the
Chinese themselves are fond of observing that they are heirs to a civilization
dating back 5,000 years. The Chinese are wont to point out that their country is
the source of what is probably the world’s oldest surviving treatise on military
strategy—Sun Zi’s (also transliterated as Sun Tzu)The Art of Warwhich dates
back more than 2,000 years to the Spring and Autumn Period (771–481 BC).