Chinese projects in Indian Ocean region pose big threat to India, say IPS top brass

New Delhi: A key security meeting attended by the top honchos of India’s police forces have expressed deep concerns about the threat posed by China to Indian interests in the wider neighbourhood. Several top Indian Police Service (IPS) officers at a recently concluded conference of DGPs and IGPs have submitted papers that claim that China wants to reduce India’s influence in the Indian Ocean region and force the Indian leadership to accept Chinese domination in bilateral issues. The IPS officers claim that China intends to fulfill this objective by increasing its influence in economically unstable countries in Southeast and South Asia by providing massive loans at high interest rates for development projects. The papers which were based on the subject “Chinese influence in the neighbourhood and implications for India” were presented at a three-day annual conference attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and about 350 top IPS officers. According to a PTI report, the papers claim that China has managed to increase its influence in India’s neighbourhood through several international projects including the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and other infrastructure related investments. China has also been funding Pakistan to keep the terrorism pot boiling in Jammu and Kashmir while engaging India in a long-drawn military stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The papers also add that as Chinese economy and military grew at an exponential rate over the last two-and-a-half-decades, China’s influence and footprint in India’s extended neighbourhood has increased proportionately. “All this is being done with the aim to keep India constrained and occupied in facing the resultant challenges, force resolution of bilateral issues on its own terms, modulate India’s growth story, leaving it (China) free to achieve its aim of becoming not only Asia’s pre-eminent power, but a global superpower,” according to the papers. One of the papers has also claimed that China is giving increased attention to its South Asian periphery, adding that the Chinese have moved beyond commercial and development engagements to activities involving more far-reaching political and security goals. China is investing huge amounts of money for infrastructure development and other financial assistance India’s neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, the paper said. “Without exception, India’s neighbouring countries have described China as a crucial development partner, either as a funder or in providing technological and logistical support. Additionally, it is the biggest trading partner in goods for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and the second-largest for Nepal and the Maldives,” it said. “However, the economic element is increasingly intertwined with political, government, and people-to-people aspects of these relationships,” it added. The papers went on to claim that the global COVID-19 pandemic enabled China to work directly with a host of nations in India’s immediate and wider neighbourhood in several different ways such as providing medicines, medical equipment and biomedical expertise apart from funds to combat the coronavirus pandemic. These developments demonstrate that China’s presence in Southeast and South Asia is no longer predominantly economic but involves a greater, multidimensional effort to enhance its posture and further its long-term strategic interests in the region and attempt to limit the influence of India, which it views as its principal rival in India, the paper said. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.