China's path of hegemony

China has been silently deceiving the world in many number of ways. China declared itself to be a free market economy in the WTO to sanctify its hidden agenda of economic imperialism. Trade with China for most of the countries is unbalanced and heavily in favour of China. China has huge trade surpluses with its trading nations. A surplus trade means that exports are greater than imports. Hence it has a huge foreign exchange reserve. So China is aiming for a world consumer market to supply its goods.

Even in the online sector, China has its own google, amazon, Facebook, etc. which are duplicated versions of the original social media. China is an expert in plagiarising others by stealing from them the technology and depriving them of their intellectual property rights.  China has been extensively involved in hacking internet and media to collect private information about individuals of other countries. Recent issues with Tik-Tok, Zoom and other apps have highlighted the privacy concerns caused by China.

When it comes to trading, there are some practices like dumping. Dumping is a process in which a good is manufactured in excess and sold at a price that is lesser than the cost in the manufacturing country. For example, if I manufacture a pen at 10 rupees in India and sell it for 5 rupees in any other country, then it is called dumping. Dumping negatively effects the domestic companies of the importing country. Last year we had to impose anti dumping duty on Chinese steel imports to protect our domestic manufacturers. Further more China provides huge export subsidies to its manufacturers effectively reducing the cost in the global market and thus harming and somewhat monopolising the trade. China has a compulsory transfer of technology clause if anyone has to do business in China. This is to force the foreign manufacturers to give up on their trade secrets.

When it comes to oceans, China is an unruly child. Ignoring the Exclusive economic zone norms of the United Nations Convention of Laws of sea(UNCLOS), China is illegally claiming and has even occupied parts of South China Sea by building artificial islands to extend their claim over the natural resources of the ocean. It has been in opposition with many countries in South east Asia like Indonesia, Maldives, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. over the South China Sea. It has illegally occupied the Parcel and Spratley islands of the South China Sea.

On land, China is no less aggressive. The proposed One belt one road (OBOR) initiative violates our sovereignty. A subset of OBOR is China - Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC) which passes through the POK which is a internationally disputed area. China wants to believe that it belongs to Pakistan and hence they deny any violation of our sovereignty. Then again they have issues with our eastern border. China considers Arunachal Pradesh to be Southern Tibet and believes it to be a part of China. Then we have disputes presently going on near the line of actual control in Ladakh. 

In South Asia and Africa, China is implementing an altogether different strategy of domination through debt trap. They are giving huge loans with lesser interest and developing huge infrastructure projects which requires a lot of capital. If these countries are not able to pay back, then China will arm twist these countries by manipulating their internal politics, external relations and finally the sovereignty of these countries.

Even on the frontiers of terrorism, China is showing a different attitude. It has joined Pakistan in categorising good and bad terrorists! A case in example is blocking of the sanctions against Masood Azar in the United Nations security council by using its veto powers. China is on the frontline of opposition for any reform in United Nations security council as it does not wish to give up its veto power.

It is clear that China's aggression will cause turmoil with its neighbouring countries and the rest of the world. But we as a mature country endowed with values have to tread carefully so as to not to cause conflict and disturb the regional peace. Peace is very important for progress of a nation and we must try to bring the Chinese to the tables and bring about a change in the way things are done through top diplomacy.