On 9th December 2022, the Chinese Army (PLA), by intruding into Indian territory, tried to change the status quo of the LAC in the Tawang sector. Indian Army retaliated and the PLA had to beat a hasty retreat. This aggressive action of the PLA must have had the green signal from their CPC Political Bosses .
There could be many reasons for such sudden aggressive action by the PLA . But two major Socio Political reasons need to be mentioned. One, the political discontent within the CPC and second reason, the huge social uprising by the common Chinese citizens against the draconian covid restrictions . This social uprising was on such a massive scale that the brutal Regime was constrained to withdraw these restrictions. Against the backdrop of such socio political turmoil and not so good economic growth, the CPC might have needed a diversion for diverting the attention of the chinese masses from the internal problems. Tawang incursion could be this distraction. It must be remembered that this is not the first such incident. Two years ago, similar incident had happened in the Galwan sector . ….
The incident of violent clashes in the Galwan Valley on the India-China border and the consequent deaths of soldiers on both sides occurred in June 2020. Fourteen rounds of negotiations have since then been conducted to find a solution to the border stalemate. Amidst this tense situation, on December 29, 2021, China officially issued standardised names for 15 places in Zangnan, its name for Arunachal Pradesh. Among those 15 places, 8 are residential areas, four are mountains, two are rivers, and one is a mountain pass. Earlier, in 2017 too, China had issued standardised names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh. China’s hostility towards India has been displayed consistently through its actions.
The Middle Kingdom Syndrome
China has turned out to be a headache and a challenge for the whole world. To understand what drives China’s aggressive behaviour, it would be pertinent to look at its history. In Mandarin, China is “Zhonggua” which is also a term printed on its currency notes. Zhonggua means “Middle Kingdom.” Since ancient times, China has considered itself as the centre of the civilised world and holds other countries as its “tributary states” and inferior to itself. Hence the term “Middle Kingdom.” The Middle Kingdom syndrome has continued to dominate the Chinese psyche in the socio-political sphere and has become stronger in the last several years. As a result, China is unlikely to have friendly relations with India and many other countries in the world.
Chinese warfare
As per traditional notions, a war scenario presents a picture of shooting, massive explosions, violence and bloodshed. But the Chinese war strategy is different. China does not recognise that war and peace are different situations. Its strategy is constantly fighting the enemy until the desired goal is achieved. Violent warfare is the last stage in this long struggle. It would not be wrong to call China’s war strategy as an “invisible war.”
It would be interesting to know what some strategists and security experts say about this invisible war strategy. In 1946, during the Cold War, George Kennan, a well-known American political scientist and diplomat had laid out a detailed plan on how to deal with Soviet Russia. He described the alternative type of warfare as “political warfare, ” launched without waging an actual violent war. This political warfare is especially important in the nuclear era, where actual war carries the seeds of all-out destruction. Political warfare involves protracted struggle and encompasses all the spheres, such as political, administrative, social, financial, industrial, and intellectual spheres, including media. China has emerged as the no.1 player in such political warfare.
What China seeks to achieve through such political warfare has been succinctly stated by Aaron Friedberg, a professor at Princeton University, as “China now seeks to present itself as providing an alternative model for development to that offered by the West, one that combines market-driven economic growth with authoritarian politics”.
Mao Zedong had stated in 1940s that the Communist Party of China would remain supreme and that the Red Army and the United Front would be the two magic weapons in the hands of the party. The Red Army would wage direct war, and the United Front would unleash political warfare. Thus both would complement each other in furthering the strategic interests of China. Even today, the United Front Works Department (UFWD) is working to increase China’s power and influence in the world. Understanding a few examples of how UFWD works to make China the most powerful country in the world by increasing its influence everywhere would be pertinent. However, an important thing to note before this is that during the Cold War, Soviet Russia was relentless in its efforts to spread its influence through socialist ideology. Unlike Soviet Russia, China simply buys people using money. Some examples highlighting this pattern are discussed here.
Political influence
On January 14, 2022, Reuters reported that the British intelligence agency MI5 had sent a security alert to all British MPs. The alert warned all MPs that a Chinese-origin lawyer, Christine Lee, has been bribing MPs for many years to increase China’s influence. MI5’s investigation revealed that she had paid millions of pounds to British MPs to influence their actions. She aimed to pursue and protect Chinese interests. Her activities threatened British national security, which forced the agency to issue the alert.
In 2021, The New York Post made a shocking revelation that China has spent $10 million in 2016 and $64 million in 2021 for Influence operations
The New York Post, in an article published on May 11, 2021, made a shocking revelation that China has spent $10 million in 2016 and $64 million in 2021 for Influence operations. This highlights how much China is spending to influence lawmakers and opinion makers in the US.
University and Academic scholars
China considers the United States as its biggest rival. China spends large sums of money on a number of American universities, scholars and students to influence the current and future generations of the United States. In 2018, Jonas Parello-Plesner and Belinda Li wrote for the Hudson Institute that “In 2017 alone, China donated a total of $56 million to several US universities, with Stanford and Harvard receiving $32,224,828 and, $55,065,261, respectively, in the last six years.” In December 2021, the former Head of the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University, Prof Charles Lieber was convicted by a US court for receiving millions of dollars from China for his research activities and yet not disclosing the receipts anywhere in his total income.
Even in our neighbourhood, China attempted to spread the reach of Mandarin by initiating a plan to teach Mandarin in all schools in Nepal, with China providing the teachers and even paying their salaries. This effort was aimed with the ulterior motive of sinicising the Nepalese society.
China seems to be unrelenting in its efforts to influence schools, colleges, universities, scholars, teachers and students so that future generations remain in awe of China.
Media
Influence operations are most important in political warfare, and media plays the biggest role in this. China is fully aware of this. China spends huge sums of money to keep media around the world under its influence.
The Chinese Government publishes China Daily. Interestingly, it also publishes a local edition in the US, which caters to projecting Chinese interests. On June 26, 2020, Voice of America reported that between November 2016 and April 2020, China Daily paid $19 million to the American media. Of that, $6 million went to Wall Street Journal, $4.6 million to the Washington Post, and $260,000 to Twitter. Four-page advertisements were printed and circulated as a special supplement under the title China Watch. The purpose of this is to increase the influence of the dictatorial Chinese Government and to increase the influence of China in American society by giving big advertisements in local newspapers. The Chinese funding of American media was yet again highlighted when Fox News on May 26, 2021, reported that in the six months from November 2020 to April 2021, China Daily paid $700,000 to Time, $291,000 to Foreign Policy, and $ 371,577 to the Financial Times and $ 929,523 to the Los Angeles Times for various reasons. China Daily itself made this disclosure in its submissions to the Justice Department of the US Government.
In light of this background, it would be pertinent to see what China is doing in the case of Indian newspapers.
A leading English language newspaper in North and West India (Indian Express) published a four-page advertisement/supplement on December 29, 2021, under the same title, China Watch. On November 3, 2017, another English language newspaper, which is widely circulated in North India and especially in Delhi and again on October 30, 2020, published similar four-page advertisement supplements (Hindustan Times). The Hindu, a well-known English newspaper of South India, published on 28.9.2018, 02.04.2020, 01.10.2020 and 01.07.2021, a whole page of Chinese advertisements.
China lays claim on the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh, infiltrates the border at various points, provides military assistance to Pakistan and protects terrorists like Masood Azhar. China’s stance towards India has clearly been consistently hostile. And yet, despite the wave of anger against China that erupted across the country after the Galwan clash of June 2020, within just 100 days, in October 2020, some prominent Indian newspapers published full-page advertisements promoting China. Betraying national interests, those newspapers stooped to new lows just for the sake of money. If readers and advertisers call for non-cooperation tomorrow against newspapers that advertise the interests of the enemy without realising the public outcry, they cannot be blamed.
If the scope of Chinese warfare is so widespread in countries like the United States and England, then one can only shiver to imagine the level to which China might have infiltrated our political, and administrative systems as well as the Media.
The fact that China has unleashed an invisible war on India comes forth in many evident ways. Political warfare is being waged against the entire Indian society. To fight the war, it is necessary to initiate the necessary counter-measures. Society as a whole will have to be prepared. The Government and the administration need to launch a massive public awareness campaign against this danger. One can only overcome the threat if one understands the exact nature of the danger.
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