www.China-Defense.com

To be frank, this is the first time I read about those two items from the press. Most of the papers written about the Gulf war had been focus mainly on the 'wonder' weapons.

"Since the end of the Gulf war, there has been a sustained campaign to study the whole process of the desert shield and desert storm campaigns. The depth of research, the absence of ideological constraints and the wide range of participants from top brass to ordinary soldiers have been unprecedented in the PLA history"

This should not a news item by now for those who studies the PLA. Even the PLA don't believe in the article "Unrestricted Warfare".

The PLA cautioned its researchers against exaggerating some seeming loopholes in the US operations by judging those on the basis of their limited knowledge of high-tech warfare and on the PLA's own traditional military thinking·e. The political implication of this is the gradual erosion of the mentality that humans are superior to machine. As one senior PLA Air Force theorist commented:

"The revolution in information technology changed with each passing day the battleground structure, operation modes and concepts of time and space while dealing blows to the traditional centralized and tier by tier command structure" (Journal of the PLA National Defense University, Nov. 10, 1997)

It is inevitable that a military has to evolve from drawing physical strength from numbers to relying on technological hardware to becoming eventually a military of intelligence. (PLA daily, this is from the OFFICIAL PLA newspaper!!! And this is just one of the many official source the author used).

As of May 1998, PLA thinkers have come up with a number of new ideas that they want to incorporate into their planning for the long-term modernization of the Chinese armed force.

Strike from long distance. New sophisticated terminal guidance systems and precision weapons have made possible beyond-vision attack. This will save human engagement and greatly reduce casualties. PLA researchers have noticed the US's new concepts of combat such as 'disengagement and indirect assault', and concentrated firepower but dispersed manpower. They agree with the claim by US military experts that in the not too distant future tank battles, aircraft dog fights and exchange of fire by warships' big gun will become history. (Beijing PLA Academy of Military Science Press, 1995)

Small size campaign formation without compromising the strength and outcome. Crack force structure and simple-layer command are most suitable for information warfare, which is characterized more by combat between hardware than between men. At the same time digitalization and precision ammunition have multiplied the firepower of campaign units. Therefore, a small high tech force can overpower an army ten times more numerous. Digitalization in particular is the key indicator of a military of the future.