#SecurityScan 49: India's rising power in South-East Asia and more
The undersea cables are conduits for the world’s data, which makes them valuable strategic and security assets.
NewsBharati 16-Jul-2023 12:58:24 PM
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This article is a summary of important events that have taken place in last one week affecting, India's national security .
News In Brief
China targets Britain’s commercial, academic institutions as government fails to recognise threat-UK report
Beijing’s aspirations to become economic and technological superpower pose ‘greatest risk’ to UK, according to long-awaited parliamentary report.Successive British governments are faulted for focusing on ‘short-term or acute threats’ and failing to recognise China’s ‘whole-of-state’ approach.
Inquiry in Australia considers WeChat ban over security and influence risks
We Chat has come under attack in Australia over its failure to appear at a parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference, fuelling calls for the popular Chinese app – used by a million people in Australia – to be banned.The inquiry, which is looking at the risk posed to Australia’s democracy by social media, heard from major social media firms on Tuesday, including Twitter, TikTok, Google and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.But WeChat – which is used daily by 47 per cent of the country’s 1.4 million Chinese Australians, according to Lowy Institute research – has refused to appear.
Japan and NATO usher in new era of cooperation amid China concerns
Japan and NATO have ushered in a new era in bilateral relations with the completion of a deal that will see Tokyo step up cooperation with the world’s most powerful military alliance in several additional areas, amid shared concerns over Russia and China.Collaboration will go beyond traditional security areas and extend to cyber, emerging and disruptive technologies and strategic communications, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday at a NATO leaders’ summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, about Japan’s recently agreed to deal with the trans-Atlantic alliance, called the Individually Tailored Partnership Program (ITPP).
Chip wars: How ‘chiplets’ are emerging as a core part of China’s tech strategy
The sale of struggling Silicon Valley startup zGlue’s patents in 2021 was unremarkable except for one detail: The technology it owned, designed to cut the time and cost for making chips, showed up 13 months later in the patent portfolio of Chipuller, a startup in China’s southern tech hub Shenzhen.Chipuller purchased what is referred to as chiplet technology, a cost efficient way to package groups of small semiconductors to form one powerful brain capable of powering everything from data centers to gadgets at home.
Philippines mulls higher defence budget to tackle South China Sea ‘harassment’
The consideration comes as Beijing warned that involving a third party to resolve the maritime dispute could turn the South China Sea into a ‘sea of war’The Philippines will also buy cruise missiles, artillery systems in military posturing to ‘drive away’ Chinese fishing boats near the energy-rich Recto Bank. Chinese vessels have swarmed, Philippine-claimed Iroquois Reef in apparent tit-for-tat response to newly-enhanced military ties with the US.
Germany’s new China strategy marks break with past as new emphasis placed on de-risking
Blueprint backs EU’s strategy and highlights economic and political risks, but makes clear that decoupling remains off the tableReport makes break with Angela Merkel era as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Berlin must take a new course because ‘China has changed’.
Pakistan: Four soldiers killed, five others injured after terrorist attack in Balochistan
Foreign direct investment in China fell to $20 billion in the first quarter from $100 billion a year earlier, hurting an already struggling economy
Desperate for capital and with their economies struggling, China’s cities are wooing Western businesses with previously unavailable goodies. Beijing has labeled 2023 the “Year of Investing in China” and local officials have embarked on promotional tours overseas to drum up interest from investors.
U.S. big tech won't shake its China addiction
For companies like Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Qualcomm, decoupling has not dented Chinese marketThe leaders of America's most powerful tech companies have been parading through Beijing since early spring, following the end of COVID-19 controls and the gradual reopening of China. Even chilly U.S.-China tensions have not stood in the way of a resumption of pre-pandemic business dialogue.
Countering Chinese Multi domain War
Economic Security - China's Hidden-Debt Problem Laid Bare in Zunyi City's Half-Finished Roads, Empty Flats
A city in one of China’s poorest provinces is awash in half-built roads and apartment blocks, symbolic of the mounting debt crisis facing municipalities around the country after years of stimulus-fueled growth.On a newly built six-lane highway in China’s southwest, a few young people jogged in light drizzle, housewives walked their dogs and retired men holding bird cages strolled with friends as cars occasionally passed in the other direction.The Fengxin Expressway, still partially closed after construction stalled four years ago, is one of the many unfinished infrastructure projects in Zunyi, a city of 6.6 million people in mountainous Guizhou province. In addition to highways, housing projects and tourist attractions also stand incomplete, symbolic of the stark debt crisis that many local governments in China are facing after years of credit-fueled stimulus to juice growth.
Chinese Economic Down turn-Stress Is Building in China’s $12 Trillion Onshore Credit Market
Pressures are increasing for China’s credit market, with onshore defaults mounting and concerns resurfacing about the country’s ailing property sector. Stress domestically rose to level 4 in June from 3, Bloomberg’s China Credit Tracker shows, the highest since February. The gauge indicates rising levels of financial strain via a band from 1 to 6. The worsening was caused largely by a pair of builders failing to make a combined 4.4 billion yuan ($608 million) of bond payments, the largest monthly total this year. Other setbacks have included large domestic banks halting purchases of local notes sold in the Shanghai free trade zone. Local-government financing vehicles, the main issuers of such debt and whose debt is a growing risk for China’s economy, could face liquidity tightness from having to seek alternate financing channels.
China Warns Its Citizens on ‘Entrapment’ by US Law Enforcement
China issued an unusual warning to its citizens traveling to the US to beware of “entrapment” by American law enforcement, in a fresh show of continuing bilateral tensions despite a recent step-up in engagement. Unusual warning follows tensions over fentanyl trade. China has been accused of operating own police stations abroad.
“Chinese nationals who travel to the US should be more vigilant, and beware of falling into US snares and arrest-entrapment,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing said Monday in a security advisory posted on the official 'WeChat' account run by its Department of Consular Affairs.
A US-China ‘war’ is on over a worldwide web of undersea cables
Thousands of metres under the sea, the United States and China are fighting a quiet “war”. The weapons are not submarines but networks of fibre-optic cables running along the sea floor that make the global Internet work.
These cables are conduits for the world’s data, which makes them valuable strategic and security assets. Currently, the US is ahead in the contest to control these assets. The global reliance on undersea cables, however, creates new openings for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to employ grey-zone tactics in its pursuit of a regional sphere of influence.
Why China’s Young People Are Not Getting Married
Marriages in China are at a record low. Recent political and economic turmoil have added another reason to postpone tying the knot.
Chinese Women Economists Who Met Yellen Called Traitors Online
A group of Chinese female economists and entrepreneurs who dined with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have been blasted by online nationalists for betraying their country by interacting with the US official.While the Treasury department skipped identifying attendees from the meeting on Saturday, a group photograph of the gathering posted to China’s Twitter-like Weibo was used to identify some participants.
China sends large group of warplanes, navy ships towards Taiwan
China sent 38 warplanes and 9 navy vessels around Taiwan, followed by 30 planes the next day. Of these, 32 crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary that had been considered a buffer between the island and mainland. Later on Wednesday, another 23 planes crossed the midline
US Navy plane flies through Taiwan Strait after Chinese drills
Chinese fighter jets monitored a U.S. Navy patrol plane that flew through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Thursday, following two days of Chinese military exercises to the south of the island Beijing views as China's sovereign territory. China has been incensed by U.S. military missions through the narrow strait, most frequently of warships but occasionally of aircraft, saying China "has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction" over the waterway. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying it is an international waterway. The U.S. Navy's 7th fleet said the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane, which is also used for anti-submarine missions, flew through the strait in international airspace.
‘An Act of War’: Inside America’s Silicon Blockade Against China
The Biden administration thinks it can slow China’s economic growth by cutting it off from advanced computer chips. Could the plan backfire?
External Security
India denies visas to U.S. panel on religious freedom, says it has no standing
India has turned down a travel request for members of a U.S. government panel seeking to review its religious freedom, saying such foreign agencies had no standing to assess the constitutional rights of citizens.Foreign Minister Jaishankar said the government firmly repudiated the surveys of the commission, which had little knowledge of the rights of Indian citizens, describing it as biased and prejudiced.“We have also denied visas to USCIRF teams that have sought to visit India in connection with issues related to religious freedom,” he told a lawmaker from Modi’s ruling group in a June 1 letter.The step was taken because the government saw no grounds for a foreign entity such as the USCIRF to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens’ constitutionally protected rights, he added.
India Is Becoming a Power in Southeast Asia
The moment has been long in coming, but India is turning into a strategic actor in Southeast Asia. Amid a flurry of regional diplomacy, India has sealed an arms deal with Vietnam, sided with the Philippines over China on sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea, and enhanced defense cooperation with Indonesia. It is balance-of-power politics worthy of an international relations textbook: Even though most Southeast Asian governments have long made it their mantra not to choose geopolitical sides, China’s aggressive posture in and around the South China Sea is driving India and its partners in the region together. And even though the United States and its Asian treaty allies are not involved, India’s moves raise the tantalizing possibility that it will increasingly complement the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy to counter China.
Rajnath Singh meets top Malaysian leadership during a bilateral visit
During his visit, the defence minister called on Malaysian Prime Minister YB Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim. He also met Minister of Foreign Affairs Zambry Abd Kadir during which they exchanged views on matters of bilateral importance and cooperation in international forum.
India Clears French Submarine Deal as US Allies Court Modi India’s Defence Acquisition Council approved the purchase of French submarines and fighter jets as the South Asian country diversifies purchases of military hardware beyond Russia and positions itself as a bulwark against China.The council on Thursday approved the purchase of three Scorpene submarines and 26 Rafale aircraft, whose price is still to be negotiated with the French government, India’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Supply Chain Security
India seeks to secure its green growth strategy by identifying a list of critical minerals
Faced with the existential threat of climate change, the Indian government has come out with a list of 30 critical minerals that are central to its ongoing efforts to pivot away from a fossil fuel-intensive energy mix.These include minerals such as lithium and graphite used in electric vehicle batteries, the demand for which is projected to skyrocket by as much as 4,000 per cent over the next several decades.The planet’s ongoing transition to clean energy technology to deal with climate change has brought the importance of critical minerals to the forefront.
Internal Security
Tackling floods in North India
PUNJAB, Haryana and Delhi are in the grip of floods; the state governments’ immediate focus is on evacuating people from low-lying areas and shifting them to relief camps. The local authorities are working in coordination with the State Disaster Response Force and the National Disaster Response Force to minimise the loss of life and property. Rehabilitation of the displaced residents and preventing the spread of water-borne diseases are among the major challenges. It’s apparent that the disaster has exposed the under preparedness of the powers that be. The implementation of the contingency plans has left a lot to be desired.
With water being a state subject, flood management schemes are formulated and implemented by the state governments. The Centre’s role is to supplement the states’ efforts by providing technical guidance and financial assistance. Under the Flood Management Programme, the Union government has linked the release of Central aid with the execution of flood plain zoning measures by the states; those which are proactive in this regard are given priority over other states. These measures include the demarcation of flood-prone zones or areas and the regulation of development in these zones so that the damage can be contained whenever flooding occurs. Inadequate groundwork has undoubtedly exacerbated the situation.
Close collaboration between Central and state agencies ensured that last month’s Cyclone Biparjoy passed off without causing much devastation. Similar synergy is required to mitigate the effects of floods and other extreme weather events, whose frequency and severity are on the rise. Disaster management ought to be a year-round priority; it’s too important a matter to be addressed on an ‘as and when’ basis. A reactive approach will offer no protection from calamities.
Energy Security
Solar Farms Out at Sea Are Clean Energy’s Next Breakthrough
Buffeted by waves as high as 10 meters (32 feet) in China’s Yellow Sea about 30 kilometers off the coast of Shandong province, two circular rafts carrying neat rows of solar panels began generating electricity late last year, a crucial step toward a new breakthrough for clean energy.The experiment by State Power Investment Corp., China’s biggest renewable power developer, and Norway-based developer Ocean Sun AS is one of the most high-profile tests yet of offshore solar technology. It’s a potential advance in the sector that would enable locations out at sea to host renewables, and help land-constrained regions accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels.
CHINESE GANGS- China and the Chinese mafias overseas
As the regime of President Xi Jinping expands its international power, it has intensified its alliance with Chinese organized crime overseas. The Italian investigation and other cases in Europe show the underworld’s front-line role in a campaign to infiltrate the West, amass wealth and influence, and control diaspora communities as if they were colonies of Beijing’s police state.
Around the world, China’s shadow war of espionage, long-distance repression, political interference and predatory capitalism is drawing attention and alarm. Governments and human rights groups have denounced in recent months a global network of covert Chinese police stations that spy on Chinese migrant communities and persecute dissidents — wherever they live.
As ProPublica has reported, the Chinese state has sent illegal undercover teams to chase down fugitives in wealthy US suburbs, surveilled and silenced Chinese students on foreign campuses, and allegedly supported the Chinese money laundering underworld that fortifies cartels inundating the Americas with deadly drugs.
But the rise of Chinese organized crime in Europe has caught authorities largely off-guard. An examination of it offers an unusually vivid look at a covert alliance in action. ProPublica has documented a pattern of cases, some of them unreported and others little-noticed internationally, in which suspected underworld figures in Europe have teamed up with Chinese security forces and other state entities.
In exchange for their services as overseas enforcers and agents of influence, the Chinese state protects the mobsters, Western national security officials say. Although supposedly wanted in China, a top figure in the Italian case traveled freely to his homeland and oversaw his European rackets from China without interference from authorities there, according to court documents and law enforcement officials.
And in Europe — as in the United States — national security chiefs say the Chinese government refuses to cooperate with their investigations of Chinese organized crime.
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BRIG Hemant Mahajan
Passionate writer on National Security related issues, Brig Hemant Mahajan YSM (Retd) is M Sc, M Phil in Defence Studies. He joined IMA Dehradun in July 1973 and passed out as a Commissioned Officer on 15 June 1975. He was commissioned into 7 MARATHA LIGHT INFANTRY. He has served extensively in Counter Insurgency Operations in Insurgency and Terrorist prone areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and North East and has taken part in all important operations undertaken by the Army since 1975.
Brig Hemant Mahajan served in Jammu & Kashmir, in the deserts of Rajasthan, in Super High Altitude areas of Kargil and Leh, forward areas of Arunachal Pradesh. He was deployed in Punjab in ‘Operation Avert’. He was also involved in maintaining peace post ‘Operation Bluestar’ days in Punjab in the worst affected district of Gurdaspur, Taran Taran and Amritsar.He served in the areas of Darjeeling, Kurseong, Siliguri and Sikkim. He commanded his battalion 7 MARATHA LIGHT INFANTRY in Operation Rakshak in the most difficult areas of Poonch and Rajouri during the times of highest militancy. His unit was responsible for stopping terrorists from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir. His unit was awarded Unit Citation, 18 gallantry awards including YSM (gallantry) for the officer.