Key Highlights of the report on China’s military’s power:
- China’s expanding military capabilities are as of now mainly geared towards preventing any US military intervention in the Taiwan Strait, South and East China Seas as well as protecting its energy supply routes in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
- China continues to rapidly modernise its warfighting capabilities, ranging from nuclear-capable ICBMs (inter-continental ballistic missiles) and submarines to cyberwarfare and anti-satellite weapons.
- China is also developing hypersonic missiles (In August 2018, China successfully tested the Xingkong-2, a hypersonic waverider vehicle).
- However, it also seeks to establish additional military bases to project it’s hard power as well as guard its OBOR projects. After setting up its first overseas military base at Djibouti in 2017, apart from its submarines regularly using Karachi, China’s target locations for military basing could include West Asia, south-east Asia and the western Pacific.
Comment on India and China:
- China effectively uses Pakistan to bog India down in south Asia. China has sold arms worth over $5 billion to Pakistan, which range from the Caihong armed drones and precision strike weapons to eight Yuan class submarines and four Type-054A multi-role frigates.
- Chinese leaders are expert at employing tactics short of armed conflicts – such as Doklam standoff in 2017 – to pursue their objectives of territorial and maritime claims in the South and East China Seas as well as along its land borders with India and Bhutan.
- China has also setup 14 airbases and an extensive rail and road network in Tibet for swift deployment of troops along the LAC.
- India has no option but to keep a close watch on China’s strategic moves in the IOR and along the 4,057-km long line of actual control as well the ever-expanding military bonding between China and Pakistan.
