Economic Sanctions as a Tool of China’s Hybrid Strategies
Economic Sanctions as a Tool of China’s Hybrid Strategies

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to analyze the role of economic sanctions in the People’s Repub-lic of China’s overall approach to achieving its security objectives in the international arena.During the last two decades, Beijing used this instrument on numerous occasions to exertpressure on a varied group of actors. China’s current strategy toward a range of disputes andconflicts it is engaged in (the South China Sea territorial disputes most prominently standout) is often described using the popular vocabulary of “hybrid warfare” or “grey zone con-flicts”. Putting the conceptual complications aside, the author agrees that the PRC’s approachcan be viewed as part of a growing trend for great powers to employ what can be called“hybrid strategies” toward its opponents. As part of a broader category of economic state-craft, economic sanctions form an important element of this approach. Considering currentscholarship on both “hybrid” (or “grey area”) warfare and economic sanctions, the articleanswers the question of why the PRC increasingly resorts to hybrid strategies (includingeconomic coercion) and identifies the main characteristics of Chinese economic sanctions.It also provides preliminary conclusions on their effectiveness.

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