Rising Chinese military power

China is highly sensitive to challenges to its security. It considers US as its long-term strategic threat. It sees US foreign policies and military strategies in Asia in conflict with its long-term interests. Clash with the US is considered inevitable in the long-term perspective, whether over Taiwan without which it feels its sovereignty is incomplete or when it is sufficiently strong militarily.

After Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan is its next objective, over which it is willing to go to war if pushed. Presently, it prefers to concentrate on building economic bridges with the US while simultaneously building its armed forces technologically.

China is wary of resurgent Japan as a future challenge though presently its pacifist military posture is no threat. It also distrusts Russian revival and India’s growing politico-military profile. It doesn’t like India’s closer ties with the US or even Russia, for it views them as detrimental to its regional and global interests. It does not want another giant in Asia. That’s why it tries to keep India on tenterhooks as regards the Sino-Indian relations. It wants India to remain embroiled regionally with its neighbours and dissipate its vital resources.

It’s time India realised the security implications of China’s rising military profile. The government has no long-term plans or resource allocation to meet current or distant security challenges. The plans drawn by the armed forces remain without government approval for want of politico-bureaucratic combine’s reluctance to commit. Consequently, India doesn’t have a coherent strategy to manage its security challenges.

Ad hocism without any defined objective prevails in all matters of security. No other country is so lackadaisical towards its national security. China’s rise as a military power and its policy of strategic containment of India has serious ramifications.
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Regional security under long-term threat by Air Marshal R.S. Bedi (Retd)