Lt Gen. Rameshwar Yadav (retd)

After the Communists took control of China, they manipulated its past history for territorial claims. This strategy was also used to create leverages as a political bargaining chip to resolve disputes on quid pro quo basis. There have also been attempts of political encroachments based on purported unequal treaties of 19^th and 20^th centuries during Qing dynasty. The purpose of such a pattern of political conduct is to encroach upon areas of economic and tactical importance. China is known to execute its claims with signature unilateralism and use of military force to seek political objectives. China has been practicing such strategies without hesitation even in defying international norms wherein it is one of the signatories. Political hubris alongside calculated unpredictability and opaque conduct is the USP of Chinese DNA.

After acquiring a dominant political stature backed by a strong economy and military, China now aspires to be a global leader. To achieve this, it has chosen the economic path—through economic expansion of a kind wherein rest of the world finds economies of scale to trade with the Asian country. In that, its strength lies in creating market synergies in the price sensitive Third World, and cheap manufacturing for multinationals of the developed nations. This has resulted in exponential economic growth of China in a short time, but the momentum needs to be taken to the next level if China has to achieve its global aspirations.

A land-locked country, except for the eastern seafront, China is heavily dependent on sea routes for energy imports, and export of goods and services. The sea route comes with its own set of problems: bottlenecks, long distances that involve logistical cost, and security issues.

Not to be defeated by these issues, China has found solutions to them. It has created a vast land infrastructure as well as augmented security along its sea routes. Moreover, it has plans to develop industrial corridors astride land routes closer to the markets it intends to enter. The alignment of such land routes would be through mountainous terrain beyond the Chinese western flank linking West Asia, Eurasia and Africa. At th