The Chinese Communist Party's Gray Zone Tactics Against Taiwan

In recent years, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has shown a rising propensity to resort to so-called "gray zone" (huise didai 灰色地帶) operations against the Republic of China (ROC) government on Taiwan. Gray zone tactics are non-military coercive actions beyond normal diplomatic, economic, and security measures that remain below the threshold of war. Led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the PRC has ramped up its use of gray zone tactics versus Taiwan in order to shift the power balance of the dispute and gain strategic advantages—whether to convince Taipei that it must expeditiously "reunify" with the mainland, or else enable a future PRC war against the island. Gray zone operations serve as one of the seven core elements of CCP political warfare—alongside information manipulation, "lawfare," economic coercion, united front work, espionage,and cyber operations—and are intended to reinforce the others by eroding Taiwan's exercise of territorial sovereignty, wearing down its military and law enforcement resources, and eroding the sense of security held by its citizens.