People's war

People's war (also called protracted people's war) is a strategy invented by Mao Zedong. The basic concept behind People's War is to maintain the support of the population and draw the enemy deep into the interior where the population through guerilla tactics will bleed them dry. The term is used by Maoists for their strategy of long-term armed revolutionary struggle, and is also an important concept in modern Chinese strategic thought within the People's Liberation Army.

Within the PLA, the concept of People's War was the basis of strategy against the Japanese and also against a hypothetical Russian invasion of China. The concept of people's war became less important with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the increasing possibility of conflict with the United States over Taiwan. In the 1980's and 1990's the concept of people's war was changed to include more high technology weaponry.

The idea of people's war was dealt a serious setback in the 1991 Gulf War as the United States demonstrated the ability to destroy Iraqi armies quickly using high technology. This lead to an increasing interest in a revolution in military affairs which emphasizes high technology and information managed. Much of the theoretical effort within the People's Liberation Army in the 1990's has been to attempt to reconcile the concepts of people's war, RMA, and asymmetric warfare.

The United States intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003 also influenced views of people's war within the PLA. Although the United States was able to achieve quick victories in both cases, in Afghanistan, the United States relied heavily on local people for ground support and in Iraq the United States received unexpected difficulties with Fedayeen Sadaam using guerilla tactics. Both situations influences PLA thinking in that it seemed to demonstrate that technology alone was not sufficient to win wars and that support from local people was not an obsolete concept in modern warfare.

Outside of China, people's wars have been basis of wars started in Peru on May 17, 1980, and in Nepal on February 13, 1996.

The Peruvian Maoists at times controlled significant parts of the country, but they were dealt a blow by the arrest of their leader Abimael Guzmán in 1992 - an event they, however, consider only a "bend in the road."

In Nepal, too, the Maoists have succeeded in controlling some districts.

It is sometimes claimed that people's wars are also ongoing in the Philippines, Turkey, and India, but evidently those have not yet been very successful.