China perceives rising India as rival: US State Dept report
China seeks to impel it [India] to accommodate Beijing’s ambitions by engaging economically while constraining New Delhi’s strategic partnership with the US, Japan, Australia and its relations with other democracies US State Department report
washington — China perceives a rising India as a “rival” and wants to constrain its strategic partnership with the US, its allies, and with other democracies, the State Department said in a report, emphasising that Beijing intends to displace America as the world’s foremost power.
Coming ahead of the transition of power from Donald Trump’s administration to President-elect Joe Biden’s administration after the November 3 US presidential election, the detailed policy document highlights that China is undermining the security, autonomy and economic interests of many nations in the region.
“China perceives rising India as a rival and seeks to impel it to accommodate Beijing’s ambitions by engaging economically while constraining New Delhi’s strategic partnership with the US, Japan,
Australia and its relations with other democracies,” the report said.
“China is undermining the security, autonomy, and economic interests of many others in the region — such as member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), including those in the vital Mekong Region, as well as the nations of the Pacific Islands,” the report added.
The 70-page report states that awareness has been growing in the US — and in nations around the world — that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has triggered a new era of great-power competition.
“Yet few discern the pattern in China’s inroads within every region of the world, much less the specific form of dominance to which the party aspires,” said the report.
China, it said, seeks to diminish US influence by fostering a sense in the region’s nations that China’s dominance is inevitable.
“Prime targets include US treatybased allies — Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines — as well as emerging strategic partners such as India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Taiwan,” it said.
The People’s Liberation Army, the report said, recently provoked skirmishes along its disputed border with India and remains in a tense standoff with India’s military.
Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a bitter standoff in several areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since May 5.
The situation deteriorated after the June 15 Galwan Valley clashes in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed and an unconfirmed number of Chinese soldiers died. —