Manoilo Andrey Viktorovich – Sc.D. in Political Sciences, Leading Researcher, INION RAS
The article examines the features of rivalry (clash of interests) of two great powers – the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China – in the sphere of information and hybrid wars, where the Russian Federation is also one of the influential players. The author notes that the United States is actually waging a hybrid war on «two fronts». in relation to China, the key instruments of the hybrid confrontation strategy are the US sanctions policy and related instruments of foreign policy pressure and blackmail; disinformation focused mainly on regions that are «problematic» for the PRC – the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tibet and Hong Kong; material support for anti-government groups engaged in subversive activities. In relation to Russia, the hybrid war unleashed by the United States and its allies is based on a wide arsenal of forces and means of information operations, used in the context of the development of the situation in Ukraine, where Russia has been conducting a Special Military Operation since 2022, and China supports the position of the Russian Federation. The article indicates that the leading countries of the world – the USA, China, Russia – already have their own strategies for waging hybrid wars, which they actively use in the implementation of their foreign policy. In matters of conducting hybrid wars, the United States primarily relies on the concept of F. Hoffman and J. Mattis, Russia – on the so-called «Doctrine of Valery Gerasimov» (Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation), and China – on the autochthonous theory of «unrestricted warfare» by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, generals of the People’s Liberation Army of China (the original concept of 1999, having a predominantly philosophical and ideological nature), which China is trying to combine with practical experience adopted from the Russian Federation and the United States. In general, it should be noted that, even without its own experience of offensive operations in the information sphere, China, with the support of Russia, at the present stage is quite effectively restraining the hybrid aggression of the «collective West».
non-classical wars, hybrid wars, irregular wars, information wars, USA, China, countries of the «collective West».
Download text