Increasing Chinese Threat to India

Increasing Chinese Threat to India

Dina Nath Mishra

In the history of the world there had been numerous rulers with the ambition to lord over the whole world or at least a large chunk of it. The Second World War happened due to the overriding ambition of Adolf Hitler. Thereafter, the Soviet Union nourished the ambition to have its ideological hold sway over the world through its puppet governments. We all know about the end of the story. Today the US nurtures the same ambition. However, it is China that is trying to dominate Asia.Today the emergence of China as a world power at par with the US is a global threat. Being a neighbour, India should be the most worrying country. India has not yet forgotten the humiliation of 1962 at the hands of the invading Chinese. The first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was naïve enough to underestimate Chinese designs and diplomacy and lived in his own make-believe world in spite of timely warning from Sardar Patel through a long letter addressed to him detailing the expansionist ambitions of the Chinese. The History of China published recently by the Chinese Government contains a map showing Chinese territory, which includes Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Laddakh and Arunachal Pradesh. The map also includes Burma, Malaya, Thailand, North and South Vietnam, Combodia and huge chunks of territories of Soviet Siberia, Mangolia, Republic of Tajakistan and Khirurgiia. The book declares the determination to bring back every territory one day or the other. There are thinking people who say that by and large status quo would prevail in the world order, but if one looks at the geopolitical map of the world of the last 500 years with an interval of 50 years each, the map would look drastically changed. Those who cannot think beyond status quo get shocked whenever the international boundaries happen to change. Nearly a month back, Defence Minister AK Antony plainly said that “with China developing anti-satellite missiles, lasers and other space capabilities, India has no option but to be fully prepared for Star War in future.” Army chief General Deepak Kapoor added that space war was increasingly becoming the ultimate high ground to dominate the war in the future. I can quote dozens of such warnings. China has positioned its nuclear submarines in Gwadar naval base at Baluchistan and more than half-a-dozen naval bases at Suludao, Quingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Hongkong etc. We have naval bases but inferior submarines at Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, Vishakhapatnam and Port Blair. China has developed observatory towers from where they can watch our movement at Sriharikota and other centres. Encirclement of India in the Indian Ocean by the Chinese is complete. They have since prepared metal road up to India, Nepal and Sikkim borders to their nearest points. Their missiles stationed at Tibet are targeted towards all Indian cities. Even US targets are also included. It must be noted that the defence budget of China in relation to India is almost double. According to Pentagon’s assessment, China’s military build-up poses a direct threat to India as well as Taiwan, Japan and Russia. China has pushed 75 million Hans into Manchuria, seven million into Sinkiang (hitherto Muslim-dominated area), 8.5 million into inner Mangolia, and 7.5 million into Tibet. The Chinese leadership has always followed the teachings of war strategy of their master Suntzu. Mao was particularly influenced by him. Suntzu said, “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence, supreme excellence lies in breaking the enemy resistance without fighting”. This is what China is doing. There are experts in India who opine that there is no immediate threat from China, for China’s priority is to develop its economy. But this opinion can be discounted by the ground realities. Source: sentinel assam