China is trying to restart its economy amidst a second wave of the pandemic, but this has not dampened its territorial aggressions.
Making most of this crisis even as most countries have been reeling with the impact of the Covid-19 virus, the dragon has been breathing fire on its neighbours.
The Psyops, the online warfare, the infiltration into strategic communities in various countries aside, China has become a belligerent force trying to open up as many fronts as possible. India and China have been fighting the worst border conflict in four decades in Eastern Ladakh with the India-China border witnessing bloodshed for the first time since 1975.
However, China’s cartographic plans extend to the whole of Indo-Pacific region. As ORF’s Distinguished Fellow, Rajeshwari Rajagopalan points out that “for a decade since Xi Jingping came to power, the country has been aggressive on both the East China sea and South China sea apart from the Sino-Indian border.”
SOUTH CHINA SEA
Beijing’s presence in the South China Sea, involves military maneuvers and large-scale deployment of military assets to the region. This move caught the international community, particularly the US completely off guard.
The Chinese territorial onslaught across the nine dash line that consists of all the nations in the South China Sea stretching upto Taiwan has increased in the past months. With the country increasingly claiming the maritime space and even putting on displays of air power.
On March 16 Taiwan’s newest Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessel was damaged after being rammed by Chinese fishing boats near Kinmen County. It was second such confrontation in which shots were fired to repel Chinese fishing boats.
On April 11, they conducted unwanted drills in the Taiwan strait to oppose US support for Taiwan’s sovereignty.
On April 2, the Chinese attacked sank a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea that China claims as its own.
UNUSUAL MOVES
These are unprecedented moves against countries that have had good ties with China.
Retired Intelligence official, Jayadev Ranade calls out this “Wolf Warrior diplomacy of China being pushed by the younger lot of diplomats in China. Under global pressure due to Coronavirus, their strategy is to hit back hard.”
HONG KONG GAMBLE
The biggest gamble China is playing is with Hongkong. The new national security bill there ensures the semi-autonomus state is absorbed completely within the Chinese jurisdiction. The Indo-Pacific powers have been wary of the Chinese threat and Japan, Australia, India and the US are partnering to counter China aggresive moves in the region.
Australia has come under one of the worst cyber attacks and intelligence points to Chinese involvement in the online warfare as pointed out by the country’s political leadership.
Despite the fear of sanctions, China has been taking on the US in the South China Sea waters. If this is China’s idea of sending a strong message to the world to not join forces with the US against Beijing then they have gone about it the wrong way. After mishandling the coronavirus crisis, it seems like China is fumbling through keeping partnerships demonstrating absolute strategic tone-deafness through its aggression.
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