Three warfares is believed to be inspired from the Zhou dynasty strategist Sun Tzu's book The Art of War, particularly his notion of winning without fighting.
[3] Laura Jackson, an American China expert, said that three warfares aims at "undermining international institutions, changing borders, and subverting global media, all without firing a shot".
Media or public opinion warfare combines traditional propaganda techniques with deception and perception management.
Psychological warfare, quoting PLA strategist Yu Guohua, "should sap the enemy’s morale, disintegrate their will to fight, ignite the anti-war sentiment among citizens at home, heighten international and domestic conflict, weaken and sway the will to fight among its high level decision makers, and in turn lessen their superiority in military strength".
[3] In 2011, the United States Department of Defense defined three warfares as the following:[22][23] 1) Psychological Warfare – seeks to undermine an enemy’s ability to conduct combat operations through operations aimed at deterring, shocking, and demoralising enemy military personnel and supporting civilian populations.
Anne-Marie Brady, a politics professor at the University of Canterbury, in her book Making the Foreign Serve China has described the tactics used including,[24] ...appointing foreigners with access to political power to high profile roles in Chinese companies or Chinese-funded entities in the host country.
[31] 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 used proxy accounts, bots and even Chinese government officials and diplomats to disseminate false stories on social media.
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.
The news story was related to trying to find a judicial "Indian connection" to the immolations, however the court which was overseeing the case did not give a verdict.
The reclamation projects and deployment of military assets in the islands shows China's efforts to "undermine the psychological ability of the other claimants (Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia) to oppose its own".
[1] China has used three warfares against Taiwan through the efforts of the PLA's former General Political Department's Base 311 which oversaw at least six regiments.
[40][41] 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.
[12] Countermeasures suggested have included documenting, exposing, publicizing and amplifying Chinese operations and activities using three warfares techniques.