US striving to defeat China’s naval hegemony

Avirtual naval arms race appears to be in the offing between the US and China with reports that the Chinese navy is set to secure significant new funding in Beijing’s defence budget as it seeks to check US dominance of the high seas and step up its own projection of power around the globe. Aggressive Chinese designs have been all too evident in recent months with its first aircraft carrier sailing around Taiwan, and Chinese warships popping up in far-flung places. In the South China Sea, the Chinese are re-asserting their hegemony much to the chagrin of the US, Japan and India and of hinterland states like Vietnam.

Clearly, US President Donald Trump’s assertions that he would not allow China to rule over international waters and interfere with navigation in the South China Sea have a lot to do with China waking up to the need to re-assert itself. With Trump promising a shipbuilding spree and unnerving Beijing with his unpredictable approach on hot button issues, the Chinese want to narrow the gap with the US navy. Evidently, the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passing through Pak-occupied Kashmir is part of Chinese designs to have faster access to the sea and to influence the course of navigation and trade in the region to its advantage. Hegemony in the South China Sea is another aspect of the Chinese strategy that Trump wants to defeat. It is in India’s interest to make common cause with the US in the endeavour to prevent this road from being built. While Trump’s methods are crude, what he is setting out to do is potentially useful for not only India but also Australia and Japan besides other countries that have a stake in the freedom of the high seas.

The Chinese navy has had generous allocations in the last couple of years, much of it kept under wraps as it builds its naval power. Under President Xi Jinping’s ambitious military modernisation it commissioned 18 ships in 2016 including missile destroyers, corvettes and guided missile frigates. In January last it put into service an electronic reconnaissance ship. With the arms race intensifying especially in the naval arena, India too cannot ignore the rapid and strong naval buildup in its neighbourhood. The modernisation of the Indian navy has to be carried out on a war footing especially with enemy Pakistan knocking at our door in cahoots with China.