Tag: USA

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CHINA THROUGH USA PRISM (Indo – China Perspective) Part – 1

This is in continuation to the earlier post on the subject (please click here to view).

First part of the recently published Annual Report to US Congress on military and security developments involving the people’s republic of china deals with understanding Chinese Strategy.

China’s National Strategy

Excerpt from US Report. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) strategy aims to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” by 2049.
Comments. China seems to be doing well and achieving the landmarks before the stipulated timelines.

Excerpt from US Report. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) frames this strategy as an effort to realize long-held nationalist aspirations to “return” China to a position of strength, prosperity, and leadership on the world stage.
Comments. China aspires to be “the only sun in the sky”. They view the world to be in the shape of a cone with China in the center and on top of it.

Excerpt from US Report. China’s strategy can be characterized as a determined pursuit of political and social modernity.
Comments. China is pursuing her goal with determination and vigor. Achieving political and social modernity seems to be from her point of view and is not the same as perceived by the rest of the world.

Excerpt from US Report. It includes far-ranging efforts to expand China’s national power, perfect its governance systems, and revise the international order.
Comments. Expanding her national power and perfecting her governance system is acceptable to the rest of the world. Revision of international order as viewed by China amounts to ruling the world, which is objectionable to the others.

Excerpt from US Report. The CCP’s leadership has long viewed China as embroiled in a major international strategic competition with other states, including, and in particular, the United States.
Comments. Chinese mind set is archaic and that of competition, with aspiration to be ahead of everyone. The world has moved on to the concept of Co-omperation i.e. be cooperative while being competitive.

Excerpt from US Report. In 2019, China intensified its efforts to advance its overall development including steadying its economic growth, strengthening its armed forces, and taking a more active role in global affairs.
Comments. There could be few possible reasons for this. First is that CPC’s centenary year 2021 is approaching. Second is attempt by Xi Jinping to further consolidate his position and third is impatience to achieve the Chinese dream. Timing of the Covid pandemic and way of handling it by China, leaves quite a few questions unanswered. It could be a part of the overall strategy.

Please feel free to express your views and provide value addition.

Part 2 of the series would cover aspects related to foreign and economic policies.

Please click here for Part 2

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CHINA THROUGH USA’s PRISM

Annual Report to US Congress. Office of the US secretary of defense recently published the unclassified part of the annual report on military and security developments involving the people’s republic of china. The US Department of Defense (DoD) has been providing this report for the last 20 years.

Scope of these Reports. These reports assess the contours of China’s national strategy, its approach to security and military affairs, and potential changes in the PRC’s armed forces. They essentially include the following:

    • The current and probable future course of military-technological development of the PLA.
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    • The tenets and probable development of Chinese security and military strategy.
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    • Military organizations and operational concepts supporting such development.

2020 Report. This report is special because, 2020 is an important year for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) before the milestone of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) centenary in 2021. It is also the timeline for the Chinese broader interim goal to transform China into a “moderately prosperous society”. The report covers developments until the end of 2019. Developments in 2020, including the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, would be covered in the next report.

Report Analysis. The report is of 200 pages with a 15 page executive summary. While the report provides an insight into developments in China and the PLA, it analysis is from Sino-US point of view.

Analysis from Indo-China Perspective. It would be worthwhile to analyze the contents of the report from Indo-China point of view.

Coming up – Series of articles

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China Through USA’s Prism: Indo-China Perspective

Please click here for part 1.

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DRAGON’S BRAIN: DIFFERENTLY WIRED (PART 3: DEALING WITH CHINA)

This is the last part of the series of articles on this subject.  This one analyses aspects related to China’s vulnerabilities, her policy and attitude towards India and present day behavior.

Dealing with China

China’s Achilles Heel. China has a few vulnerabilities and insecurities. Her reaction becomes aggressive when these red lines get threatened or crossed. Some of these are:

    • Hunger for Natural Resources and Energy. China is a growing country needing a large amount of natural resources. China also has a very high demand for energy, making it heavily dependent on oil imports.
    • Extended Supply and Communication lines. China’s extended supply and communication lines, both on land and sea could become vulnerable to interdiction, disrupting her supplies. China has been working towards creating redundancy by developing alternate supply routes.
    • Belt and Road Initiative. This project has been initiated by China to revive the old silk route. Her endeavor is to create alternate trade and supply routes connecting various countries. A lot is riding for China on this project, which is already running into some rough weather in a couple of places.
    • Three Ts & Hong Kong. China is very touchy about Trade, Taiwan and Tibet. Even Hong Kong can be added to this list now.
    • Food Security. Recent pandemic and floods in the country have revealed the fault line of food security of the country. The food production is inadequate to meet the demand. Fishing in waters of other countries and leasing of land from other countries for cultivation are efforts towards mitigation of this problem.
    • Age Demography. To control the growing population, China had adopted one child policy. This policy was implemented very forcefully and was successful, however it has created an adverse age demography. The median age of the country is high with a large number of aged population. Each young person has to support two to three aged relatives. As a result it tries to avoid contact warfare, where loss of life would be high. Investment in long range weapons and unmanned platforms corroborates this observation.

Continue reading “DRAGON’S BRAIN: DIFFERENTLY WIRED (PART 3: DEALING WITH CHINA)”