With the advent of Xi Jingping at the helm of affairs in Beijing, China has metamorphosed into an evil empire, shedding Deng Xiaoping’s hide-your-strength-bide-your-time approach in international relations, posing a grave threat to the humanity.  With its burgeoning economic clout, China is adding new territories in its already menacing wish list of ‘core interests’ besides Tawang, Tibet and Xinjiang, Taiwan and the Diayou Islands. Its foreign policy took an aggressive turn—opening various fronts of confrontation simultaneously— when the world was battling the Covid-19 pandemic, triggered by Wuhan lab. Its Army crossed across the Line of Actual Control at Galwan Valley leading to menacing border build-up between two nuclear-armed countries. China dispatched its warplanes to cross Taiwanese airspace; increased patrols around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. It warned the United Kingdom of serious “consequences” for excluding Huawei from its 5G network. It ruthlessly launched a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and enacted draconian National Security Law.

Analysts argue that the reason for the aggressive turn in Chinese foreign policy is the changing dynamics in the domestic politics. Ever since Xi Jingping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, there has been an attempt to consolidate power. His bid to purge his opponents in the party has triggered severe internal feuds and disgruntlement. Besides political crisis, China is facing a looming economic trouble. Therefore, it makes sense from Xi Jingping’s standpoint to adopt an aggressive foreign policy and whip up hyper-nationalism to tide over the domestic crisis. An insecure fascist leader at the helm guided by hyper-nationalist ideology can spell disaster for the humanity, as it happened in the case of Hitler during the Second World War. 

Meanwhile, as the world is once again grappling with fast-spreading Covid-19 Omicron variant with many countries witnessing a massive surge in number of cases, China seems sitting pretty unfazed by the mess outside. While global markets crashed on the fear of a looming Omicron wave, Chinese markets were reaping rich harvest of “virus bonus”. When the pandemic disrupted the production elsewhere, China’s exports of electronic goods, textiles jumped.

However, pressure has been piling up on China. Despite mounting international pressure,  domestic support for the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese President Xi Jinping has not eroded, said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.

Orville Schell, the Arthur Ross Director of Asia Society’s Center on US-China Relations, says China’s aggression, coupled with the rise of its military, could result in a “military accident or even a military clash”. If that comes to pass, then it could spell the end of China’s dream, it could end the global market system, it could be the upending of many, many things as we know it today. “And that’s why this is such an immense danger, that China’s wolf warrior diplomacy — its aggressiveness which seems bent on doing what it wants to do regardless of what anyone else thinks — is such a danger,”  said Schell. 

As China is facing problems on the domestic and international fronts, the world should prepare itself for any eventuality. Some of the recent reports emerging from China have forced experts to sit up and take note. According to some international agencies, China has been investing heavily on its military and weaponising biotechnology. It has developed "brain-control weaponry" for potential offensive use, say experts. n