Guest Column | Choking the Choke Points

Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (retd)

Quoting Hugh White, Robert Kaplan has mentioned in his popular book Asia’s Cauldron, ‘It is a world where sea denial is cheaper and easier to accomplish than sea control, so that lesser powers like China and India may be able to check ambitions of a power like the United States, and submarines and mines and land-based missiles may combine to inhibit the use of aircraft carriers and other large surface warships.’

It is not a coincidence that China’s Military Strategy paper of May 2015 identifies its present geographical constraint and has taken a deliberate decision to develop her maritime forces describing it as ‘Critical Security Domain’. Why is it so critical to China?

China’s Military Strategy Paper of 26 May 2015 says that: ‘The seas and oceans bear on the enduring peace, lasting stability and sustainable development of China. The traditional mentality that land outweighs sea must be abandoned; the great importance has to be attached to managing the seas and oceans and protecting maritime rights and interests. It is necessary for China to develop a modern military force structure commensurate with the national security and development interests; safeguard its sovereignty and maritime rights and interests; protect the security of strategic SLOCs and overseas interests, and participate in international maritime cooperation, so as to provide strategic support for building itself into a maritime power.’

Subsequent to publication of this strategy paper China has pursued her objectives in the near sea i.e., South China Sea/ East Sea and gradually moving towards Indian Ocean region (IOR) thereby transiting towards ‘….PLA Navy will gradually shift its focus from offshore water defence to the combination of offshore waters defence with open sea protection, and build a combined, multifunctional and efficient marine combat force structure. The PLAN will enhance its capabilities for strategic deterrence and counter-attack, maritime manoeuvres, joint operations at sea, comprehensive defence and comprehensive support’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak

It is in these contexts that China, through soft power and other means, persuades its neighbours to accept the idea of a dominant Chinese role in the East Asian and larger Indo Pacific order.