PLA Information Warfare Development Timeline and Nodal Analysis
Zulu Meet Analyst, Verisign iDefense
The development timeline is consistent with the broad contours of China’s current IW theory. It showed clearly the footprints of China’s common war preparation patterns and People’s war concept. For China, IW is a People’s War, beyond simple “hacking,” and is a long-term strategy that considered a necessary component for total war preparation. China has thus integrated IW units at multiple layers into the civilian and national emergency infrastructure. Also, ten years of practicing suggests that China has developed a mature understanding of IW and methodology, which it is able to quickly deploy and duplicate.
