China has taken advantage of the world’s struggle with Covid-19 to mount a disturbing display of military firepower and push its illegal claims to land and oilfields in the South China Sea. Targeting the Trump administration, Communist Party of China (CPC) officials are busy berating Australian policy makers and forcing Europeans to acquiesce to their narrative. Every time any official from the West makes a point about China’s culpability in mismanaging the initial stages of this crisis, the CPC machinery leaves no stone unturned in reminding the world that it is the West’s own inefficiencies.

The Chinese military upped the ante further by sinking a Vietnamese fishing trawler and conducting military exercises in the contested maritime waters. Last month, the PLA’s Southern Theatre Command, which oversees the South China Sea, took part in an anti-submarine training exercise. And it is not only the South China Sea, Taiwan, Japan and even South Korea had to face Chinese military recklessness.

The Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group has sailed close to Taiwan and Japan and PLA aircraft have been spotted at least six times flying close to Taiwan’s airspace this year. Taiwan’s ministry of national defense has also announced that China is planning to set up an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea. In March, South Korea had to scramble fighter jets after Chinese Y-9 surveillance aircraft trespassed into the Korean ADIZ without any prior notification. Reports also emerged last month that China has been conducting sub-critical or zero-yield nuclear tests at its Lop Nur site in Xinjiang.

India too has not gone unscathed. Additional troops have been rushed to the border after clashes and stone pelting broke out between PLA and Indian soldiers with both sides sustaining minor injuries at two places in Ladakh and Sikkim over the last week. The Indian Army’s statement claims the incident left 11 injured on the Indian side; Reports have also emerged of Chinese helicopters violating Indian airspace in eastern Ladakh, resulting in IAF scrambling its Sukhoi jets. For India and the world at large, this is a moment when internal socio-economic consolidation clearly needs to be a priority. But they must remember that the CPC has another agenda and if they are not attuned to that, then the costs can be huge.

Written by

Priyanga Loganathan, Intern

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