Expansionist Greed Of Chinese Government: A Pain In Neck For World – OpEd
It is now well recognized all over the world that China has made spectacular progress in the industrial and technological front in the last few decades. Certainly, there are many admirers of China in the world, who are impressed that China has changed its image from being a developing country to a developed one in a short span of time.
Obviously, this is a tribute to the Chinese people, their determined and hard working capability and above all, an unbending desire to improve earnings and profit. So far so good.
The minus factor
While China has contributed significantly to the industrial and economic prospects of the world, one cannot admire the greedy ambitions of China’s government to become a world super power, with the least regard for fairness in dealing with other countries and its lack of scruples — as well as its view that it can adopt any means to achieve its objectives toward emerging as super power. The concept that the means should justify the end is not in China’s dictum.
Definite game plan
China’s expansionist greed is being implemented with a definite game plan, and it is making no effort to conceal the.
China aggressively entered Tibet in the 1950s, massacred innocent Tibetan protestors and has been occupying that country now for several decades. The unfortunate fact is that China’s aggression in Tibet was not challenged by other countries in the world and Tibet became the first victim of China’s greed for world dominance.
India was the second victim of China’s greed, when China started a war with India in 1962, defeating the ill-equipped Indian army and occupied large Indian territory, which it continues to occupy till today. Further, China is laying claim for the Arunachal Province in India.
The next victim of China’s greed is Japan, where China is laying claim for Senkaku Island. There are other countries like the Philippines, Vietnam who are yet other victims of China’s greed, as China is laying claim on South China Sea, questioning the legitimate claims of countries like Philippines, Vietnam and others.
Economic exploitation of weak countries
Apart from such aggressive military interventions, as part of its game plan to implement its expansionist approach, China is steadily bringing several weak countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh under its control by extending debt for implementing projects, clearly knowing that these countries will never be able to repay their debt to China. The debt ridden countries are being forced to surrender projects and related territory to China in lieu of the debt, such as the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, the Gwadar port in Pakistan and several others.
The One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is another clever strategy by China to subjugate the weak countries in Asia, Africa and elsewhere to China’s economic domination and it has already made substantial inroads in these countries, who having succumbed to the OBOR temptation have unwittingly found themselves in a trap.
Cause for concern
Even as China has been recording steady growth in multiple directions, the fact is that it has shown aggressive behavior in expanding its territories and implementing its schemes to dominate the world. This is justifiably causing concern all over the world. The present view of most of the world community with regard to China is not much different from the view of the world community about Hitler during the second world war.
Potential threat to world peace
While China believes that it has enough economic and military strength to gradually advance its expansionist ambition and it won’t be effectively challenged in advancing its plans, several countries in the world are now realizing that China can be a potential threat to world peace. There is gradual realization among several countries that some coordinated action amongst them is required to checkmate China in the present juncture.
Vulnerable to trade pressure
Obviously, a number of concerned countries seem to be veering to the view that China has to be confronted on the trade front to make it behave.
While China has built huge capacities in industries and in the production of goods and services, the fact is that such capacities are much more than what China needs now and in the immediate future. Obviously, China has become an export dependent economy and any adverse impact on the export trade of China would cause unbearable pain for Chinese economy.
Suppression of freedom
Apart from the expansionist greed of China that causes world wide concern, the suppression of liberty and freedom in China and human rights violation is disturbing the world conscience to some extent. China seem to be creating an impression that suppression of freedom and growth of economy should go in parallel, which is unacceptable from ethical and civilization view point. Is it right to target a particular country?
It is certainly not normally right to target a particular country, but when that country has faith in aggressive methods, has territorial ambitions and expansionist greed, the world is left with no alternative other than striving to defeat such approach of the country.
The confrontation is not with the Chinese people per se, but with the present Chinese government, which is totalitarian in outlook and methods and is not a credible representative of the Chinese people. It is sad that the present Chinese government has become a pain in the neck of the world — and Chinese government does not seem to mind this.
