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Chinese military conjures world war Z scenario of all-out conflict to test and evaluate new navy weapons

  • Assessment of weapons has focused mostly on combat capabilities in a regional conflict but the PLA is now factoring in a ‘total war’ scenario
  • ‘It is unlikely that this paper is intended as a horror movie,’ commentator says

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The Z-war mode assumed by PLA scientists assessing weapons had the Chinese military under an all-out-attack by a hypothetical blue alliance to simulate “total war”. Photo: AFP
Stephen Chenin Beijing
The Chinese military has recently added a “total war” scenario when testing and evaluating the performance of new weapons as the risk of military conflict between China and the US reaches its highest in decades, according to scientists involved in the project.

Total war means all available resources and efforts of a nation are mobilised towards winning the war. It involves not only the military but also the civilian population and the economy, such as occurred in World War I and II.

In their latest evaluation of warships, Chinese navy scientists designated the doomsday scenario with Z.

In mainland China, the performance assessment of conventional weapons involves computer-based war games and field tests. It has focused mostly on evaluating the weapons’ combat capabilities in a regional conflict, such as direct military intervention by two or more foreign aircraft carrier groups around Taiwan or in the South China Sea.

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But in Z, “there is a clash of strategic willpower. The regional conflict escalates to a total war”, said the team led by researcher Fang Canxin of Unit 91404 in China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Fang’s unit is responsible for the sea tests of some of China’s newest and most powerful naval weapons, according to openly available information. The Z-war scenario was declassified for the first time in their peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese Journal of Ship Research this month.

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