In the early 1990’s, the Chinese watched in fascination at how rapidly the United States defeated Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War.

They realized there was no way they could meet the technological advanced American military on the conventional battlefield and win. As they studied how the United States had waged its wars, they saw that leaps in technological innovation drove innovation in American military tactics. Not the other way around.

The Chinese considered this quite a profound discovery and began to embrace the idea that in a China versus America military conflict, the inferior China could beat the superior United States. In fact, China’s defense minister, General Chi Haotian, even stated that war with the U.S. was inevitable and that China would not be able to avoid it. He said the key issue for the Chinese armed forces was going to be controlling the initiative- how the war would be fought. It would all come down to how each side approached waging war. China knew exactly what their plan would be. Their blueprint became known as Unrestricted Warfare.

The first and most important rule of Unrestricted Warfare is that there are no rules. Nothing is forbidden. The plan calls for merciless, unconventional out-of-the-box thinking. The key is asymmetrical attacks on every sphere of American life-political, economic, and social.

Using doctrines of leaders like Sun Tzu (The Art of War), they focused on the time proven methods of surprise and deception, particularly by weaponizing civilian technologies and employing them without morality, mercy, or limit in order to crush American society.

What is ‘weaponizing civilian technologies?’ For example, one of the U.S.’s most important technologies is electricity. If electricity were weaponized, meaning an opponent had found a way to use it against the U.S., America would be devastated. Without electricity, fuel doesn’t get pumped, trucks don’t move, food and drugs don’t get delivered, the economy grinds to a halt, society starts to break apart. Fires don’t get extinguished, looting and crime doesn’t get stopped, you pick up the phone to dial 911 and there is no dial tone. Soon there are no police, there are no firemen. All there is, is chaos.

It could be argued that losing the Internet to hackers would have the same as an enemy turning off our electricity, either through widespread sabotage or with an electromagnetic pulse weapon.

The Chinese military leaders who developed the Unrestricted Warfare plan explained that in the realm of low-intensity conflict, the vulnerabilities of the U.S. actually become exponentially more pronounced. In essence, there are multitudes of things that U.S. citizens believe are harmless that a clever enemy could turn against them, and use them to cripple the U.S. in a heartbeat.

The blackout of 2003 hit eight U.S. states and parts of Canada. Not only was power generation and delivery affected, but so were the water supply, transportation, communications, industry, and the overall economy. There was looting. The overall cost was estimated at between 7 to 10 billion dollars. The power outage affected more than 55 million people and was the second most-widespread electrical blackout in history.

Forensic investigation showed that China’s Peoples Liberation Army sponsored hackers had hacked the U.S. electrical power system network that controlled distribution to the Northeast and were mapping it. It has been privately alleged that they were leaving behind hidden, malicious software, known as ‘Trojan Horses,’ that could be activated at a later date, specifically in a time of Unrestricted Warfare, in order to knock American power systems offline. Where it went wrong, supposedly, was that while leaving the ‘Trojan Horses’, some hacker or a group of hackers accidentally activated theirs, causing the blackout.

Subsequent investigations of networks across the U.S. showed widespread compromise of the nationwide electrical system by the Chinese. ‘Trojans’ had been planted everywhere.

At least 11 people died because of the blackout, and it contributed to the fall of the Ontario government in a provincial election. And it only lasted a couple of days.

The impact on national security was just as serious. Without power, critical systems used by the U.S. to detect illegal border crossings, port landings, and breaches of sensitive sites were all compromised. Even more disturbing was the blackout was a neon sign for terrorists, pointing right at one of America’s greatest Achilles’ heels.

The Driving Philosophy Behind Unrestricted Warfare- It is all about positioning yourself for victory. Why meet your enemy sword to sword, where he is the strongest, when you can force him to expose his side, where he is weakest, and strike him there.

Besides weaponizing civilian technologies, Unrestricted Warfare also works to slowly influence U.S. culture with their values via ‘cultural warfare,’ influencing American media.

Cornering and rigging the markets for things America needs, such as oil and rare earth minerals, through ‘resource warfare.’ Joining international bodies like the U.N. Security Council and voting against American resolutions and interests as part of ‘international law warfare.’ Manipulating the value of the dollar and subverting the banking and stock markets via ‘financial warfare.’ The list is multifaceted and it goes on and on. And it includes terrorism.

Many people aren’t aware of when the 9/11 attacks happened, we all saw dancing in the streets of the Muslim world. What we didn’t see, though, was the sheer exuberance displayed by state-controlled Chinese media. They produced video games, books, and documentaries glorifying the violence and calling it a ‘humbling blow against an arrogant nation.’

Many people also don’t know that the Chinese predicted that bin Laden would hit the World Trade Center, and they predicted it 3 years before it happened. U.S. Intelligence also learned that before 9/11, the Chinese military had been providing training to the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda. The American intelligence apparatus was stunned by this revelation and couldn’t figure out why the Chinese were mixing with Islamic terrorists. It all had to do with ‘Unrestricted Warfare.’

The Chinese wanted to build their own worldwide Islamic terror network that they could unleash against their enemies, particularly the U.S. at will. They developed deep ties with the Taliban in order to develop even deeper ties with al Qaeda. Much as they mapped U.S. electrical networks, they wanted to map existing Islamic terror networks. This is how the Chinese were able to build a terrorism network rivaling al Qaeda.

(A special note of thanks to Brad Thor, former member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell Program for the above information.)