From the Himalayas to the Pacific, China's expansionism worries the world

At a time when the world is busy tackling the coronavirus pandemic, China, the country where it all began last December, is busy turning its long-unfulfilled dreams of expansionism into reality.

China's military push in the Himalayas resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers in the Galwan valley, east of Ladakh earlier this week.

However, a clash with India isn't the only bucket list ambition of Xi Jinping as he aggressively plans his next move to make China the sole global superpower and himself the most powerful, supreme leader of the world.

While the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is busy initiating war games at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the People's Liberation Army Navy, also known as the Chinese Navy, is steering forward the ship of China's dangerous agenda in the East and South China Sea.

<img class="wp-image-3349 size-full" src="https://indianarrative.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/02cb77acfcc1cf2bb8a50aa1f3c2d7be-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1704" /> Chinese navy's Haikou, a guided-missile destroyer (Xinhua/Qin Haishi/IANS)

<em>The Japan News</em> reported Wednesday how the Japanese government is becoming increasingly wary of China's objectives in their territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands.

"Four Chinese government vessels were spotted sailing in the contiguous zone just outside Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters based in Naha said Wednesday. This is the 65th day in a row a Chinese government ship has been spotted in the area, surpassing the previous longest period of 64 days since the islands were nationalized in 2012, according to the Japan Coast Guard," <a href="https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0006616468">said the report</a>.

It also quoted Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as saying "It is extremely regrettable, and we are repeatedly protesting the situation through warnings given by coast guard vessels and through diplomatic channels."

Not too far away, Taiwan has said that China has increased military activities manifold in the sensitive Taiwan Strait in the recent months.

The Taiwanese Air Force had to chase out Chinese fighter jets out of its airspace Wednesday for the fifth time in last 10 days, the country's air force said in a statement.

China considers the democratic island as its own, a claim strongly rejected by Taipei and many in the world community.

Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the list of sufferers getting severely impacted by China's so-called pandemic opportunism in the region is growing long.

A big reason why China dominated the discussions at the meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) defence ministers yesterday.

<img class="wp-image-3351 size-full" src="https://indianarrative.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/63b62e9a2a3a8eca63a36699270bdcdb-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1707" /> NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (C) chairs a NATO defense ministers meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in February, earlier this year. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng/IANS)

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that "China is high on the Nato agenda, and that was not the case before" which pretty much reflects the mood of many heads of state and governments right now.

"China has the second largest defence budget in the world. They are investing heavily in new long-range weapons systems and missile systems that can reach all Nato countries. They are modernizing their maritime capabilities with a more . . . with a more global reach of their naval forces. Just over the last five years they’ve added 80 more ships and submarines to their navy. That equals the total amount of ships and submarines in the navy of the United Kingdom. So it illustrates some of the magnitude of the Chinese military build-up.

"And of course, this has consequences for NATO. And as we also have discussed, this is about China coming closer to us. It’s not about NATO moving into the South China Sea, but about the fact that China’s coming closer to us. We see them in the Arctic. We see them in Africa. We see them investing heavily in infrastructure in our own countries. And, of course, we see them also in cyberspace," said Stoltenberg after the meeting.

Nato urged China to engage "constructively" in arms control because "as a global major military power they also have global major responsibilities."

Well, expecting a responsible attitude from Beijing in these times would just be like imagining yourself living in utopia..