Legal Insurrection: "China’s new 'Great Game'”

From the op/ed:

As President Obama is busy waging “quixotic” war on Greenhouse Gases, China is making real geostrategic and territorial gains in Indian Ocean and South China Sea. China is not only reclaiming Islands in its backyard — furnished with airstrips and Naval bases in the South China Sea, but also building a corridor connecting the western Chinese city of Kashgar to the Arabian Sea.

China’s plans are so aggressive and ambitious that it would make even a seasoned foreign policy expert’s head spin — don’t expect that from anyone in the current U.S. administration. While Obama administration spends big on climate change and works to shrink U.S.’s carbon-footprint, the administration is equally committed to shrinking U.S.’s geostrategic footprint in the world.

Sensing U.S’s disengagement from the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean, China is pasturing aggressively in the Indian Ocean to encircle its Asian rival, India. China and India share historic rivalries. After invading Tibet, China attacked India in 1962 — successfully pushing back Indian defences and occupying roughly 40,000 km of Indian territory. Since 1960s, China has made further territorial claims in India.

In September 2014, China docked a nuclear submarine at Sri Lanka’s Colombo port [near India’s southern-most coastline], followed by an attack submarine just few weeks later.

A recent report by policy research institute Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) describes the “construction of an artificial island near the Colombo South Harbor.” China is willing to invest $1.4 billion in the port city project, but faces opposition from President Maithripala Sirisena, the newly elected leader of the small Indian Ocean Island-Nation.

The cornerstone of China’s overall expansionist policy is Pakistan’s deep-sea port of Gwador. The Arabian Sea port of Gwador would not only open a new route for China’s oil and gas imports, but create a full-fledged Chinese naval base overlooking India’s Western Coast.

Read the whole thing.