China's deployment of the "three warfares" strategy has been recognized by several strategists, including Professor Kerry Gershaneck of
MCU,
Seth G. Jones of
CSIS, Associate Professor Michael Clarke of
ANU and the former
CIA analyst Peter Mattis. The
French Ministry of Defence considers the strategy to be the core of China's
political warfare. The strategy has been seen as part of Beijing's ability to link all elements of national power for strategic ends. It may include the building of military bases in contested areas, done, not for kinetic purposes, but for psychological effect.
Australia and New Zealand According to Sascha Dov Bachmann, Professor in Law at the
University of Canberra, China has, since 2000, employed influence operations that have eroded the sovereignty of both Australia and New Zealand. It aims to undermine the integrity of the organic political processes in both countries to manufacture a friendly political environment for Beijing through the use of influence and disinformation campaigns. According to Anne-Marie Brady, the Chinese Communist Party works with the
Chinese diaspora as part of a united front strategy to advance Chinese political and economic interests in New Zealand, with goals including cultivating local political leaders in the country.
Canada COVID-19 pandemic During the
COVID-19 pandemic, China used a vast disinformation campaign to claim that COVID-19 originated outside of China. It used proxy accounts, bots and even Chinese government officials and diplomats to disseminate false stories on social media. For example, Chinese state-run media falsely claimed that COVID-19 had originated in South Korea and Italy. A Chinese diplomat
Zhao Lijian shared a theory that a US Army service member had brought the virus to China. The German Interior Ministry also revealed that Chinese diplomats had urged Germany to report favorably on China's COVID-19 response efforts. China has also influenced the
World Health Organization to shape and steer its messaging in favour of China.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the
WHO Director General, consistently praised China's "effective" response but never criticized China for suppressing whistleblowers and ignoring the WHO's recommendations on how to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Czech Republic According to the Czech Republic's counter-intelligence agency
Security Information Service (BIS) 2014 report, "China's administration and its intelligence services have put an emphasis on gaining influence over Czech political and state structures and on gathering political intelligence, with active participation by select Czech elites, including politicians and state officials." Media warfare was waged with the aim of stopping India from proceeding with its action in Bhutan and belittling Bhutan's claims. China's media and multiple ministries made statements at numerous public forums with the same goal. Psychological warfare included calling India's foreign minister a liar and asserting that China would change its stance regarding the Indian state of
Sikkim, and in turn "free" Sikkim from Indian control. Legal warfare included Chinese statements saying that Bhutan had accepted Chinese claims on Doklam and that the 1890
convention is to be followed while ignoring the
1914 convention.
Japan The
2025–2026 China–Japan diplomatic crisis has been cited as an example of a pretext for China's deployment of the three warfares against Japan.
South China Sea Since 2013, China has reclaimed land and fortified a number of islands in the South China Sea. The reclamation projects and deployment of military assets in the islands show China's efforts to "undermine the psychological ability of the other claimants (Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia) to oppose its own". It has also deployed maritime militia in the region to create confusion among the navies of these nations. It has followed an aggressive messaging initiative using diplomatic pressure, news media and other media "to promote narratives reinforcing the historicity of its claim and warning others to refrain from antagonism". In peacetime, Base 311's employment includes a commercial front, the China Huayi Broadcasting Corporation. China's push for other countries to recognize its efforts, whether peaceful or not, for
Chinese unification has been described as part of the three warfares doctrine.
United States In April 2014,
The Pentagon released a report it which it claimed the PLA was using its three warfares strategy and warned of China's use of coercive economic inducements and other non-traditional methods to weaken the resolve of the US and its regional partners to defend the islands and oceans of the South and East China seas. In 2016, the
Journal of Strategic Security reported that China uses the three warfares strategy to influence the international community, and the United States in particular, to forestall the development and implementation of any counter strategy to its cyber-espionage campaign, which has resulted in losses of $338 billion to the United States. In 2020, Chinese lawyers sued the United States for covering up COVID-19, an example of three warfares being conducted as if it were a military operation.
Xinjiang The three-warfares doctrine has been seen to have been used in
Xinjiang, even though it is an internal province of China. The use of three warfares and the concept of "social management" is a means of preserving its hold on power. China implemented a
Social Credit System through which it collects and analyzes
metadata to shape and "score" the economic and social behavior of citizens. This scoring system allows for "predictive policing", enabling the state to make predictive assessments of perceived threats to its authority. == Countermeasures ==