Beijing’s Bold Move: Strategic Focus on India Grows
Beijing’s Bold Move
The growing geopolitical position of China against India is a more tough and aggressive position that puts deep roots in the Indian sovereignty and national security. In recent years and more so since the conflict in the Galwan valley in 2020, Beijing’s has engaged in a sort of strategic approach of increasing a border dispute into the realm of deliberate political provocation and territorial revisionism. The latest event i.e. the renaming of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh in the official Chinese maps and statements have taken the already existing strained India-China relations, a step further in the risky zone. Combined with an increase in military aggressions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the targeted economic actions towards India (e.g., the ban on the sale of rare earths) the Chinese strategy stems out to be a full spectrum threat to Indian sovereignty. This orchestrated attack is not only a challenge to India territorial integrity but also a menace to the larger South Asian peace and stability.
Spaces of Geospatial warfare Rewriting Borders in Maps
Among the most eye-popping elements of the Chinese military stance has been its strategic deployment of official mapping and naming to assert itself over Indian territory. If the Occupied Kashmir and South Tibet are two instances of Chinese geospatial warfare aimed at destabilizing India, it would only be one style of its geospatial warfare that seeks to change the legal and political status of India in the global arena. These are not just symbolic acts these are moves made to normalize Chinese territorial claims to disputed lands. Cartographic aggression is not new in Chinese strategy, but the systematic, official renaming of these places raises the stakes even higher in the geopolitical competition with India. It has a rather strong signal that Beijing will impose order not only of the territories but also of the international cognition of these territories thus increasing the pressure on India by international means.
The Signaling at the LAC
The renaming of territories is a non-violent act, but this serves as a precursor to actions of assertiveness of a more material nature along the LAC. It serves to support the overall attempt of China to redefine the status quo on the ground both psychologically and physically. The message with strategic signaling by making changes in maps and bellicose diplomatic discourses is to undermine Indian claims and determination and consolidate local perception of Chinese rightful might on land. Such relocations are coordinated with military mobilization as well as infrastructural strengthening in the Himalayan border leading to the establishment of the view that the Chinese movements are also part of a strategy aimed at consolidating its hold over territories in dispute. China does not only want to deliver a message to New Delhi the signal intended to reach the global community is a statement that China is going to continue its territorial ambitions via long term and multidimensional pressure.
Territorial Claims and Institutionalization Thoughts
China has gone even further and is now calling Ladakh as Chinese Territory and even more it has incorporated the conflicted area of Aksai Chin in the province of Xinjiang Autonomous. This is a direct institutionalization of its territorial pretensions with severe consequences on the ways future diplomatic negotiations and military posturing shall occur. It jeopardizes the old stance of India that Ladakh and Aksai Chin are part of its territory, and it aims to give the Chinese right to the international watch. Defining administrative borders that disregard Indian sovereignty China does not only increase the border conflict but also preconditions the further geopolitics bargaining when some components of territorial concessions will be received as a partial response to full recognition of the Chinese control over the strategically important regions. Such a strategy is designed to force India into the unfavorable territorial compromise or a long-term strategic instability.
Parallel activity by the PLA and PF
China is also using the instruments of economic pressure against India. This is indicated by the recent suspension of export of the rare earth magnets which are vital to India in the automotive, renewable energy and defense equipment manufacturing industries. India has also banned Chinese technology companies such as Huawei and TikTok so the tit for tat export limitation is viewed as retaliation of sorts. By focusing on the areas critical to India as an economic growth and a country at large, Beijing also tries to put simmering tensions within the country, and they also seek to slow down the technological advancement of India. Such economic warfare is an indication that China is prepared to take its superiority in important supply chains as a kind of a weapon to manipulate the policy choices and strategic preferences of India. It is a caveat about how India needs to become less self reliant in the technological sector given that technological sovereignty will cost the country in the wake of supply chain diversities and innovation enhancement at the home front.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are exclusively those of the author and do not reflect the official stance, policies, or perspectives of the Platform.
