China-Pak unable to contain India's Rising Military Strength and Global Diplomacy Streaming
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India’s rising military strength seems to have rattled both China and Pakistan. According to the Chinese Communist Party’s official organ The Global Times, China is contemplating to produce ballistic, cruise and anti-aircraft missiles in joint collaboration with Pakistan.
Until recently, Beijing was in the habit of pooh-poohing India as a military power. But the Agni V missile with its five thousand plus kilometre range and the recent successful trial of the nuclear capable submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) K-4 with a reported range of 3,500 kms have made Beijing sit up and take note.
The Indian Navy has also drawn up an ambitious expansion plan which aims at raising the navy’s fleet strength to two hundred vessels by 2025 and transform it from a buyer’s navy to a builder’s navy, posing a serious challenge to China’s ambition of dominating the high seas in Asia.
Besides, the situation in South Asia has been gradually turning against China. Its ‘string of pearls’ policy of encircling India has failed. Rather, its aggressive assertion of unilateral claim over the South China Sea has antagonized Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. India’s decision to sell the BrahMos missile to Vietnam has raised Beijing’s hackles.
China’s influence on Sri Lanka and Myanmar has also waned considerably. Instead of isolating India, China finds itself getting isolated from most of her neighbours. Joint naval exercises by India, Australia, Vietnam and US in the Malabar Coast have been another worry for China.
In fact, barring Pakistan China today has hardly any Asian country which it can count as its all-weather friend. China may fume and fret over Dalai Lama’s coming visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh but it knows that a repetition of 1962 will no longer be possible. Donald Trump is yet another imponderable factor for China. Beijing does not know whether militarization of the South China Sea will invite Trump’s retaliation. It would be very risky to do so.
As for Pakistan, it no longer enjoys the same rapport with the US as it did earlier. China is hardly likely to replace the US as a donor country helping Pakistan militarily and economically. The growing China-Pakistan axis may not win Beijing many friends in Asia. China considers India as its main rival as a regional power but finds that containing India is becoming more and more difficult. It is for the policy-makers in Beijing to decide whether they will take a confrontationist or a conciliatory attitude to India.
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