‘The China Threat’: India And US Must Forge Strategic Convergences – Analys

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Strategically strange is the emerging forceful reality in the second decade of the 21st Century that India as the largest democracy in the world and the United States as the most powerful democracy in the world have “The China Threat” staring squarely staring in their faces. China in its normal senses would have not dared to pose “The China Threat” against a combination of India and the United States, no inconsequent nations, had it not for the correct readings of Indian and United States strategic minds by China and their follow-up policy formulations.

In Chinese strategic perceptions, India stands characterized by strategic timidity, a political leadership and policy planning apparatus devoid of strategic culture and more significantly with no credible and visible Indian initiatives to strengthen India’s war preparedness and defense postures against ‘The China Threat”. In Chinese strategic perceptions the image of Indian strategic timidity gets further reinforced by India’s reluctance to enter into credible strategic partnerships which could add military muscular strength to India’s strategic postures arising out of hangovers of the Nehruvian Syndrome and also the hangover of India’s now defunct Non-Alignment policies. India’s continuing ‘China Appeasement ‘policies of the last seven years further reinforce this Chinese perception.

China’s strategic perceptions on India as articulated above stand further reinforced by the fact that India to off-set her strategic weaknesses against China has not been able to co-opt a credible countervailing Power to offset the strategic imbalance in Asia. An unwritten sub-text of the United States-India Strategic Partnership was India’s enlistment of the United States as a countervailing Power against China. The United States decision to forge the United States-India Strategic Partnership with India and its articulations that the United States would assist India to emerge as a global player was impelled by the same unwritten objectives.

The United States mindful of the fact that India may take a long time to break out of its strategic coyness to enter into substantial formal strategic alignments adopted the alternative path of assisting India to build her power potential so that there would be in place in the strategic environment of Asia an existential containment entity against China albeit with balancing power potentials.
China

China

The United States as the singular global Superpower, for a curious mix of geostrategic and geopolitical factors, has like India followed a ’China Appeasement’ policy. United States “China Hedging Strategy” is a product of not its fears of any strategic inadequacy against Chinese militarism but is a product of the Cold War fixations on Russia which still heavily persist in the mindsets of Washington policy planners. But the end result is that American strategic ambivalence on China becomes an impediment for India to forge ahead into a more substantial strategic engagement with the United States on coping with ‘The China Threat’.

The United States however has taken some credible steps in its Pacific Strategy to cope with the emerging ‘China Threat ‘in terms of carrying out relocation of its Forces from a northward focus to a southward shift of the strategic center of gravity of its strategic assets in the form of strategic bombers, strategic nuclear attack submarines and missiles, especially to Guam.. These stand covered in a recent Paper (SAAG Paper No. 4674 dated 31 August 2011) of this Author entitled “ East Asia: United States Gears-up to Meet China Threat”.

The Indian policy establishment rather than preparing India to face ‘The China Threat’ in terms of the manifestation of its military capabilities is wasting precious time in deciphering China’s strategic end-game intentions against India as if these were no evident for more than fifty years.

‘The China Threat’ is a live threat in 2011 for both India and the United States. China is no longer emphasizing its traditional jargon of China’s peaceful rise. China is increasingly becoming belligerent with both India and the United States ranging from military brinkmanship in Ladakh and *** to challenging the United States in the South China Sea region. Buoyed by its military rise which was not checkmated so far by the United States, China seems to be emboldened to flex its muscles.

Strong imperatives therefore exist for India and the United States to forge strategic convergences to cope with ‘The China Threat’ which can no longer be wished away by either nation. In this direction, this Paper is not intended to be a research paper but an analytical exercise to focus India’s strategic planners on salient issues having a bearing on the main theme.

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