As China lashes out, everyone has to be concerned: Gordon Chang

Only “a few people in senior Communist Party circles truly know what is behind China’s new aggressiveness, what is now known as ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’,” said Gordon Chang in an email interaction with The Sunday Guardian, when asked why China would possibly go for a tense stand-off with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at a time when the world is reeling under the coronavirus pandemic and China itself is not free from the virus.

The Us-based columnist, author and China expert added that everyone had reasons to be concerned as

“China is roiling its borders. Not only are Chinese troops in Indian territory, China since the middle of February has been engaged in a series of boat-bumping and other incidents in the South China and East China Seas with six other countries. Moreover, China’s military has increased the tempo of dangerous intercepts of the US Navy in its peripheral waters and skies. There have been multiple threats of invasion of Taiwan in recent months. As China lashes out, everyone has to be concerned.”

He believes that the standoff is not going to ease soon. “This pattern of belligerent behaviour, among other things, suggests that getting China off Indian soil will take a long time. Beijing is in no mood to compromise, and perhaps only the prospect of defeat will get Chinese generals to return to their original positions,” he said.

On the question of the direction the Us-china “Cold War” was taking, Gordon Chang said, “As China is taking on its neighbours, it is also challenging the United States. Some call the tense situation today the beginning of a new Cold War; others more correctly point out Beijing has been trying to undermine the United States for decades. Let’s remember that in May of last year Beijing declared a ‘people’s war’ on the US.”

“What is different this time”