Two years after the People’s Liberation Army created a new Strategic Support Force, a combined cyber and space warfare and military spy service, details about the force’s structure and mission remain wrapped in mystery.
As with most of China’s advanced arms programs and warfighting capabilities, the Strategic Support Force (SSF) remains a closely guarded secret. But the fact that China’s leaders have combined four or five military departments into a service on a par with its army, air force and navy in terms of stature highlights the importance the Chinese have placed on non-kinetic forms of warfare.
China in the past has labeled these types of military capabilities "assassin’s mace" or "trump card" weaponry – in other words tools that will allow the PLA’s traditionally weaker conventional and nuclear forces to use asymmetric means to defeat a stronger enemy, namely the superior forces of the United States.
Read the entire article at Asia Times.