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.