China will not stop its aggression

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China will not stop its aggression

Friday, 10 July 2020 | Markandey Katju

Xi Jinping’s imperialism is expanding, and is, therefore, the greatest danger to world peace

In the recent talks between the Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the two sides agreed on disengagement and de-escalation, but this can only be temporary. The Chinese are bound to intrude again into further areas in Ladakh in the future in their insatiable lust for more power,  land and raw materials for their industries. In fact that is why they have always refused to delineate the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on a map.

The truth is that this “disengagement” agreed upon by the two sides is in essence an agreement that the Indian Army shall not patrol or occupy areas that China had accepted as Indian all these years, as explained in great detail by Rahul Bedi in his article titled  Chinese pullback at Galwan comes at a cost; Indian retreat shifts LAC to its disadvantage.

Consequent upon the new alignments agreed upon, some three kilometres of territory regarded for years to be under Indian control becomes de facto “no man’s land.” So what this really means is that the Chinese had intruded two steps into Indian territory but have agreed to withdraw only one step. And one can be sure that they will keep applying such “salami tactics” in the future too.

In an article, China and India are super-populations — They have to be super responsible, Victor Gao, Professor of Soochow University, and Vice President of Centre for China and Globalisation, writes, “The two countries need to be more keenly aware of their responsibilities to the world, and stand firmly together in opposing conflicts and promoting peace and development.” Professor Gao further writes that both China and India are ancient civilisations and for millennia were the richest in the world but were later impoverished by colonialism. He states that China and India are the only two countries in the world having a population of over one billion each, and with super populations come super responsibilities.

He states, “Ideally, super-populations should be known not only for their size, but also for the quality of life of their people, the contribution they make to the world, and the sense of responsibility they exhibit towards it. This means that China and India need to be more keenly aware of their responsibilities to the world; their need to stand firmly together in opposing wars and conflicts and promoting peace and development in the world and between themselves in particular. In sum, super-populations should not be super in numbers alone, but also worthy of the special status to which their size entitles them.”

With all due respect to Professor Gao, this is either an utter lack of understanding of realities or deliberate obfuscation. In order to understand politics one must see the economic forces behind it, because politics is concentrated economics.

China may have been socialist at one time but today it is not. It is imperialist and with its huge industrial base and $3.2 trillion foreign exchange reserve is hungrily seeking markets, raw materials and avenues for profitable investment, like an imperialist power.

There are two kinds of imperialisms, expanding imperialism and defensive imperialism. The former, being aggressive, is much more dangerous than the latter. For example, in the 1930s and early 1940s, Hitler’s imperialism was expanding imperialism, whereas British and French imperialism were defensive imperialism.

While the latter only wanted to hold on to their colonies, the former wanted to conquer and enslave other countries. So Hitler’s imperialism was the real danger to world peace.

Today Chinese imperialism is expanding imperialism, and is, therefore, the greatest danger to world peace. It has penetrated the economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America, apart from the developed countries. Mountainous areas like Tibet and Ladakh may appear barren but are full of valuable minerals and other natural wealth, which the Chinese greedily covet as raw materials for their growing industry. This is the real reason for the recent Chinese intrusion across the LAC in Ladakh into Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Demchok, Five Fingers and so on.

One must understand that politics is concentrated economics and there are certain iron laws of economics which operate independent of any individual’s will. It is in the nature of capital that it seeks avenues for profitable investment. The Chinese have built a massive industrial base and amassed about $3.2 trillion foreign exchange reserves, which is a huge amount  of hot money hungrily seeking avenues for investment, markets and raw materials. In other words, China is a huge aggressive expanding imperialism and independent of the will of its leaders like President Xi or Foreign Minister Wang it must aggressively keep expanding.

So all the talk of peace is empty rhetoric. Hitler, too, often spoke of peace while pursuing his path of conquest. Like Nazi Germany, China will keep expanding, as it is doing economically all over the world by capturing markets and raw materials and militarily in the South China Sea, Ladakh, and so on.

The only way for India to stop this is by creating a united front along  with other powers like the US to confront Chinese imperialist expansionism, like the united front of Great Britain, US and the Soviet Union created in World War-II against Hitler.

(The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India.)

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