New Delhi: With the United States of America under Donald Trump 'abandoning' world leadership, China is taking one step at a time to become the next true superpower.
After bringing into motion the 'One Belt One Road initiative', that aims to make it the pivot of global trade, China is now expanding its military footprint to regions and countries far away from its traditional borders.
As per a new Pentagon report, China is likely to establish additional military bases in Pakistan and other countries with which it has longstanding friendly ties and similar strategic interests.
The development is of concern to India given our long-standing hostility with Pakistan and the ever-fragile peace along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
India may have red-flagged China's push to operationalise the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir – but Beijing has been pressing ahead to complete the key link – that will connect China's Kashgar with Pakistan's Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.
While China has maintained that the Gwadar port - developed with Chinese money - will be used only for economic purposes, the jury is out on whether the strategically located port on the Arabian Sea will also see a military use in future.
What leads credence to the doubts about China's military build-up in the region is the construction of a Chinese military base in Djibouti, at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden – giving the People's Liberation Army direct control of one the biggest marine trade routes in the world.
"In February 2016, China began construction of a military base in Djibouti and probably will complete it within the next year," the Pentagon report said, adding China claims that this facility is designed to help the navy and army further participate in UN peacekeeping operations, carry out escort missions in the waters near Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, and provide humanitarian assistance.
This initiative, along with regular naval vessel visits to foreign ports, both reflects and amplifies China's China's growing influence, extending the reach of its armed forces.
China has cited anti-piracy patrolling as one of the reasons for developing what it calls a naval logistics center in Djibouti.
The report cautioned, however, that China's efforts to build more bases "may be constrained by the willingness of countries to support" the presence of China's People's Liberation Army in one of their ports.
China, the report said, uses PLA engagements with foreign militaries to enhance its presence and influence abroad, bolster its image and assuage other countries' concerns about its rise.
"These engagements also assist PLA modernisation by facilitating the acquisition of advanced weapon systems and technologies, increasing its operational experience throughout and beyond Asia, and giving the PLA access to foreign military practices, operational doctrine, and training methods," it add
In 2016, China conducted counterpiracy operations in the Gulf of Aden by deploying its 24th naval escort task force to the area since 2008, it said.
"China also continued to send submarines to the Indian Ocean, ostensibly in support of its counterpiracy patrols. In May 2016, a nuclear-powered attack submarine conducted a port call in Karachi, Pakistan, during a visit by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Commander, marking China's first port call in South Asia by a nuclear submarine," the Pentagon said.
"These submarine patrols demonstrate the PLAN's emerging capability both to protect China's SLOCs and to increase China's power projection into the Indian Ocean," the report said.
According to the Pentagon, Pakistan is also China's largest buyer of arms. From 2011 to 2015, China was the world's fourth largest arms supplier with more than USD 20 billion in sales.
Of this, USD 9 billion was to Asia-Pacific countries, primarily Pakistan," it added.
Sub-Saharan Africa was China's second largest regional arms market.
"China's ability to remain among the world's top five global arms suppliers hinges largely on continued strong sales to Pakistan and demand for its armed UAVs. China is one of only a few global suppliers of such equipment and faces little competition for sales to the Middle East and North Africa.
This likely will result in the Middle East and North Africa surpassing Sub-Saharan Africa as China's second largest arms export market," it said.
Last year, China signed an agreement with Pakistan for the sale of eight submarines, it said, adding that the first four will be built in China, with the remaining four in Pakistan.
Other major Asia-Pacific customers of Chinese military equipment include Bangladesh and Burma, it said.
China sold armed UAVs to several states in the Middle East and North Africa, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon said.
China faces little competition for sale of such systems, as most countries that produce them are restricted in selling the technology as signatories of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and/or the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies (WA), as well as as subjecting exports of this technology to greater scrutiny than China, it said.
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