Defence Notes
New Delhi, 21 October 2009
China’s Encirclement Policy
IS INDIA’S DEFENCE IN PLACE?
By Dr PK Vasudeva
The
assertion of Foreign Minister S M Krishna that the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
is one of the most peaceful borders does not seem to be based on facts. The
strategic moves which China is undertaking with other smaller neighbouring
countries in the subcontinent show that Beijing has sinister designs of
encircling India and subsequently divide it into smaller independent States,
notwithstanding denials.
It appears
that Beijing still rues its decision of
voluntarily withdrawing from the 90,000 sq km of Indian
territory it had occupied in 1962 and has been harbouring a desire
to make up the loss at an opportune moment. The Chinese always work on a
long-term strategy unlike India,
which does only firefighting thanks to short-term strategic planning. Beijing keeps throwing feelers along the borders and
carries out a few diplomatic moves to gauge New Delhi’s reaction.
However, India claims that as its trade with China has
crossed $ 52 billion and is its largest trading partner it will not indulge in
any adventurism. If that be so then why should it build its network of roads
and railways right up to the borders, and establish strategic airfields in Tibet, near
Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin and across Ladakh?
Moreover,
in the recent past New Delhi has on quite a few
occasions, hurriedly moved Army units away from the Jammu
and Kashmir border and posted them along the boundary with China. This happened
when Beijing had suddenly increased the Army strength
near a mountain ridge, which is very close to the tri-junction of India, Bhutan
and China.
But what is inexplicable is the hush-hush atmosphere, which New Delhi prefers to drape over the issue.
On its
part, Beijing
has been practicing a policy of ‘encirclement’, a diplomatic-military
initiative for a long time. In line with this, China has been gradually pushing
its outposts nearer to the Indian border, the most important case being
Xigatse, the second most important city of Tibet that has been put on the
Golmud-Lhasa extended railway line. It has now become a bustling centre of not
only trade and commerce but Chinese espionage activity too.
Take the
case of Nepal.
Other than the Kodari highway, which was built with Chinese assistance in 1960,
a second highway connecting Nepal
and Tibet
has come up. Although the Maoists are no longer in the Nepalese Government,
there are reasons to believe that the recent beating of Indian priests at the
Pashupatinath temple may have had Chinese blessings.
Likewise, China has become one of the most important
patrons of Pakistan
in international politics. In return Islamabad has
allowed Beijing to open at least four link roads
from the Karakoram Highway,
one of which will connect the Gwadar deep-sea port, which China has built for Pakistan.
In the
world energy market Beijing is now in brisk
business of securing energy supplies most of which pass through the Persian Gulf. By using the Gwadar port China gets an automatic access to the Persian Gulf where it has substantially increased its
naval strength in recent times.
For Myanmar, it has
developed the Irrawady corridor thereby creating a network of roads, rails and
waterways. The corridor is extremely important for China
as it would give its landlocked areas an access to the Bay of Bengal where Beijing is rapidly
increasing its naval strength.
In
competition, India has also
agreed to invest $ 100 million for upgrading the Sittwe port and developing the
Kaladan river system of Myanmar.
However, in matters of respective bilateral relations China has left India way behind. Beijing’s
relations with the military junta are extremely cozy and it has stood up for Yangon to block world sanctions against it.
China has already secured rights for free use of Myanmar’s river
systems due to this facility. It has been able to build up surveillance
stations on the Coco
Island near the Andamans.
That India recognises the
probable Chinese threat from the sea becomes clear from New Delhi’s decision to upgrade its naval
station in the area.
Indeed,
the military threat from China
is real. The numerical strength of its Army is 2.5 million, more than double of
India’s, with the range of
its missiles too being higher, with a good number in Tibet carrying nuclear warheads. Besides,
this year China’s
defence expenditure has increased by 14.9 per cent, pushing its defence budget
to $ 70.2 billion, an increase of $ 9.1 billion from last year. It now stands
very near to Japan, Russia and the UK
in respect of military spending, while India lags far behind.
Interestingly, Chinese experts are always at pains to point out that their
country spends only about 1.5 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for
defence. But its GDP has been growing by over 10 per cent annually.
This has
enabled China to build its
war industry, which not only produces arms and ammunitions for its own use but
exports to countries such as Sudan,
Egypt, Tanzania, Iran,
Iraq and Sri Lanka, other than Pakistan. In 2007, it successfully
carried out its anti-satellite test. It has acquired technology for
construction of aircraft carriers, for carrying out air-to-air refueling and
for developing anti-tank missiles. While its MiG-33 is much superior to the IAF’s
accident-prone MiG-21, it has also developed a multi-role fighter aircraft
christened CAC-J7 which is widely used not only by Pakistan
but Myanmar and Bangladesh too.
Another
important arsenal rolling out of China is the basic jet
trainer-cum-light attack aircraft, a product of the Hongdu Aviation Industry.
Its export variety is called K-8 in Pakistan, which uses it extensively
and has a 45 per cent share in its joint production. China’s
participation in the production of the Jalalat class missile fast attack naval
craft in the Pakistan Navy Dockyard at Karachi
is also well known. Nowadays Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh
use large numbers of patrol boats, fast attack crafts and vessels for
amphibious operations either designed or built by China. In contrast, India’s
presence here is minimal, with the only noteworthy example being the Hindustan
Shipyard-built 1890-tonne patrol vessel “Shaurya,” used by the Lankan Navy.
Undoubtedly,
China considers itself a big
power and a clash of interests with India is inevitable. It is likely
to come into conflict with New Delhi’s
“look East” policy. Therefore, there are enough grounds for escalation of
tension between the two nations. The most important being the unresolved border
question with Beijing
not accepting the LAC and the McMahon Line.
New Delhi does recognize the danger, but
refuses to spell it out. It has recently decided on a series of steps such as
stationing of the Sukhoi-30 aircraft at Tejpur, revival of abandoned airfields
in Ladakh, posting of two Army divisions for the defence of Tawang and building
all-weather roads up to the farthest Army post on the border.
Some honest confessions are also emerging. Sometime back former
Naval Chief Admiral Suresh Mehta was candid enough to admit the inadequacies of
the Navy. The other day Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik said the IAF is only
one-third the size of its Chinese counterpart. Sadly, the political tribe continues
to desperately hide its failure. --INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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