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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China vs. India |
| 2005-03-21 |
| ...It is China's economic transformation that has given it the capability to become a military power. Its rapidly modernizing military is another aspect that India should be worrying about. China's military may or may not be able to take on the US in the next few years but it will surely become the most dominant force in Asia. As China becomes more reliant on imported oil for its rapidly growing industrial economy, China will develop and exercise military power projection capabilities to protect the shipping that transports oil from the Persian Gulf to China. The capability to project power would require access to advanced naval bases along the sea lines of communication and forces capable of gaining and sustaining naval and air superiority. China's assistance to Burma in constructing and improving port facilities on two islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea is the first step to securing military base privileges in the Indian Ocean. This can be used as a listening post to gather intelligence on Indian naval operations and as a forward base for future Chinese naval operations in the Indian Ocean. China's increasing naval presence in the Indian Ocean is occurring at the same time as the Indian naval expansion has come to a standstill and this can have great strategic consequences as India's traditional geographic advantages in the Indian Ocean are increasingly at risk with deepening Chinese involvement in Burma. China has also been actively occupying islands, reefs, and islets throughout the highly disputed South China Sea, occasionally resulting in skirmishes with rival claimants. Though not of any direct strategic consequence for India, this shows that China is serious about making its military presence felt in Asia and would like to be taken seriously... On its part, India seems to have lost the battle over Tibet to China, despite the fact that Tibet constitutes China's only truly fundamental vulnerability vis-à-vis India. India has failed to limit China's military use of Tibet despite its great implications for Indian security, even as Tibet has become a platform for the projection of Chinese military power. India's tacit support to Dalai Lama's government-in-exile has failed to have much of an impact either on China or on the international community. Today even Dalai Lama seems ready to talk to the Chinese as he realizes that in a few years Tibet might get overwhelmed with the Han population and Tibetans themselves might become a minority. China remains the only major power in the world that refuses to discuss nuclear issues with India for fear that this might imply a de facto recognition of India's status as a nuclear power. It continues to insist on the sanctity of the UN resolution 1172 which calls for India (and Pakistan) to give up its nuclear weapons program and joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapon state. China also remains unenthusiastic about a change in the UN Security Council architecture that might give India Security Council's permanent membership... It might be a blow to its self-esteem but it needs to be recognized by India that China has played its strategic cards rather well vis-à-vis India. There were even reports as recent as late last year that the Chinese troops have intruded into the Indian territory along a stretch of the unfenced border with Arunachal Pradesh. If recent reports are to be believed after a two-decade gap, China has resumed the supply of weapons to various insurgent groups fighting in northeastern India. China seems to be getting successful in hemming India in from both, the eastern and the western flanks. Even as China has solved most of its border disputes with other countries, it is reluctant to move ahead with India on border issues. And the fact that we are even discussing border issues with China is seen by India as a great concession. India remains satisfied with the "positive" and "satisfactory" Joint Working Group negotiations on the boundary issue. No results of any substance have been forthcoming so far even as the talks continue endlessly and the momentum of the talks itself seems to have flagged. In fact, China has indirectly stated its non-negotiable positions on the Sino-Indian boundary dispute. A recent article in the Chinese foreign ministry sponsored journal, International Studies, Cheng Ruisheng, an advisor to the Chinese foreign ministry, claims that India illegally occupies 90,000 sq. km of Chinese territory in the eastern sector, 33,000 sq. km of Chinese territory in the western sector, and 2,000 sq. km of Chinese territory in the middle sector. With such a negotiating stance of China, it is difficult to see how this boundary issue can be resolved in the near future... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 hmmm - did Clancy have this in mind? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-03-21 9:04:54 PM |
| #3 Where do the BettyCrocker-crats fit into the big picture? Ima wnta no. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-03-21 8:35:27 PM |
| #2 WHere China is concerned, India = HK = Singapore = Macao = DIego Garcia = Guam-WESTPAC. etc. > control of the Straits of Malaccas and the bulk of Internat/East-West trade in the Pacific thru East Africa-Indian Ocean-Suez, besides of course access to both ME and Indonesian oil. "String of Pearls/ Turtles of War" [island bases] strategy and Is a key reason why China is also warning Australia about assisting alleged US "Imperialism"!? The USA and Western Democracies-Capitalism must make all the concessions, not the Failed Left's Mackinder's World Island. i.e. Communist [Fascist] Asia - A Fascist is still a Fascist, but thanx to the Clintons a Communist is now a Fascist who's still a Communist, ala Fascist = aka De-Regulated/Competitive Communist-Socialist. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-03-21 8:26:08 PM |
| #1 Yup...that's why there's an "Indian claim" and a "Chinese line of control" on the map. Little border war thingy. Also, China originally armed Pakistan with nuclear weapons in order to counterbalance India. And Pakistan has been busily selling them to anyone with cash. Yippee. |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-03-21 1:12:07 PM |