NEWS AND ANALYSIS:
China plans to support lethal military action with a legal warfare strategy that uses laws and lawsuits against adversaries to shock, deter and create the “coercive force to achieve victory,” according to a newly translated document.
The in-depth People’s Liberation Army text highlights lawfare as part of its so-called three warfares, along with propaganda warfare and psychological. Legal warfare tools are now a significant element of non-kinetic means of crippling enemies and weakening their will, the report says.
The practice is described as a military support function complementing hard power in the report, “Legal Warfare: 100 Cases — Classic Case Analysis.”
“Legal warfare in military struggle is not simply aimed at achieving legal victory, nor is it pinning hope on court judgments to win, but through legal struggle it is necessary to effectively cooperate with and guarantee military victory and ensure the full realization of the purpose of war,” according to the 619-page report.
The practice is defined as the application of domestic and international law to back military operations, delegitimize enemies, and gain a legal initiative in war.
According to the PLA, legal warfare is a “combat style” and part of the larger domains of political and cognitive warfare.
The PLA will use legal warfare as a component of lethal military action, utilizing “will, shock, deterrence, and coercive force to achieve victory,” the report said.
Law is unable “to attack the opponent and directly kill the enemy” but can play a key nonlethal role to “effectively strengthen the effect of military struggle, weaken the enemy’s combat effectiveness, and ensure victory in military struggle,” the report states.
The document was produced as a training text and published by the official PLA press in 2004. It was translated by the Air Force China Aerospace Studies Institute and made public Monday.
Legal warfare is now part of PLA political work regulations that describe it as a major innovation for military conflict in the current era of modern warfare.
In legal war, the PLA will use an enemy’s domestic court systems to target adversaries.
A goal in conflict will be to choose and apply laws favorable to China’s position while exposing unfavorable legal obligations of adversaries.
The practice will not be used when fighting starts but must be carried out prior to hostilities, managed during operations and positioned to consolidate outcomes after the war ends.
This means winning hearts and minds among conquered populations, stabilizing occupied territory and other functions through the courts.
The report cited the PLA shelling of Taiwan’s Kinmen Island near the coast of China in 1958 as a key use of legal warfare.
As part of the 48-day artillery operation, China declared a 12-nautical-mile territorial zone in the seas nearby and demanded that all U.S. ships obtain Beijing’s permission before entering the area.
The Chinese government also declared that the U.S. was illegally occupying the islands and Taiwan itself as part of its legal warfare.
Since the report was published, China added several new legal warfare tools in an effort to annex the self-ruled island.
In 2005, China announced an anti-secession law that lists three vague conditions under which Beijing will take military action against Taiwan.
Then in 2015, Beijing imposed a new national security law that broadened the 2005 measure. It asserted Chinese legal jurisdiction over any activities China views as threatening its core interests.
The two measures assert legal supremacy over the island and claim that anyone who acts in support of Taiwan “independence” is violating Chinese law.
China has since opened criminal investigations of Taiwanese officials.
“The lawfare campaign — Beijing’s use of legal instruments as tools of coercion — is the leading edge of China’s pressure campaign against Taiwan,” said Eyck Freymann, a Taiwan expert at the Hoover Institution. “It will almost certainly intensify before any military escalation.”
Mr. Freymann stated in a recent report on lawfare that the United States and regional allies need to prepare for a Chinese blockade of Taiwan backed by lawfare.
“Beijing’s lawfare campaign is happening now, in plain sight, and it is accelerating,” he said.
“The question is whether the United States and its allies will develop a coordinated response before the crisis forces them to improvise one. History suggests that improvisation favors the side that has planned.”
Rubio: U.S. to discuss Taiwan at China summit
President Trump and top aides will discuss the flashpoint issue of Taiwan at the upcoming summit meeting in Beijing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
Mr. Rubio told reporters at the White House that the president will broach the topic during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping set for the middle of the month.
Asked if Mr. Trump will press Beijing on its Taiwan policy during the visit set for May 14 and 15, Mr. Rubio said, “I’m sure Taiwan will be a topic of conversation. It always is.
“As you know, the Chinese understand our position on that topic; we understand theirs,” he said. “And I think both parties — again, without getting ahead of myself and what will happen in the talks, but I think both countries understand that it is in neither one of our interests to see anything destabilized happen in that part of the world.”
China’s designs on Taiwan remain a point of high tension between Washington and Beijing.
In recent years, Chinese military operations around the island have increased sharply as part of what military leaders call a pressure campaign by Beijing.
“We don’t need any destabilizing events to occur with regards to Taiwan or anywhere in the Indo-Pacific,” Mr. Rubio said. “I think that’s to the mutual benefit of both the United States and the Chinese.”
The Trump administration recently announced new arms sales to Taiwan totaling $11 billion for advanced weapons including HIMARS missiles, M109A7 Paladin howitzers and air defense missiles.
Beijing denounced the sale as a violation of its one-China principle.
China and the United States adhere to fundamentally differing policies on Taiwan, both called one-China policies.
China’s policy asserts Taiwan is part of its territory and Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to take control.
U.S. policy views Taiwan as part of China but does not recognize Beijing’s sovereignty over the island. The American stance opposes any unilateral change in the tense status quo, something analysts say is being undermined by China through laws and military operations.
President Trump upset a long-standing policy on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan in February by discussing the issue with Mr. Jinping.
The discussions fueled speculation that Mr. Trump may offer concessions at the summit, such as a reduction in U.S. arms sales in reaching an economic deal with China.
The Pentagon is pressing Taiwan to rapidly build up its defenses in a bid to deter military action that U.S. military leaders say could take place as soon as 2027.
The PLA, meanwhile, is systematically escalating large-scale military exercises around Taiwan that the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Sam Paparo, has called rehearsals for an invasion.
The latest saber-rattling by Beijing took place in April when the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
In addition to military actions, China is conducting legal and information warfare campaigns, the most visible feature of which was the recent visit to China by the pro-Beijing leader of the opposition Kuomintang Party, Cheng Li-wun. It was the first by a KMT leader in 10 years.
Beijing is claiming the U.S. is fueling “separatism” and formal independence by Taiwan.
Washington says all its actions are guided by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and U.S.-China communiques, including one that states U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are conditioned on threats from China which have increased sharply.
Treasury chief wants China to help open Hormuz Strait
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is urging China to increase diplomatic efforts to press Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz — a topic he said will be raised in next week’s meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Jinping.
Asked about a report China is seeking advantages over the United States at the summit while covertly backing Tehran, the secretary said on Fox News that “China always seeks an advantage. They seek an advantage in everything.
“Let’s see them step up with some diplomacy and get the Iranians to open the strait,” he said.
Mr. Bessent said China’s purchase of 90% of its energy from Iran is funding the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
“But more importantly, the threat of attacks from Iran has closed the strait,” he said. “We are reopening it. So I would urge the Chinese to join us in supporting this international operation.”
United Nations measures on Iran also have been blocked by China.
The U.N. is working on a resolution encouraging nations to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
