I start with this because it is infuriating and maddening. It’s a conscious, chosen violation of the territorial rights of another country. And the fact is somehow made worse when it’s done to a neighbour.
I denounce the decision by the Government of India to reject the United States’ offer for mediation. This for whatever reason borders on the weird.
One thing is clear though, sometimes, we can foresee that a battle cannot be won and when that time arrives, it’s easy to figure in that if that specific battle is to be won and one’s rights retained, we need Allies. Alliances. Until we can get a force large enough to face the adversary.
In the light of the known fact that India isn’t a match for China, it’s ridiculous and small-minded to keep rejecting offers of help from foreign nations since this complacency is the only real reason China now dares to literally walk into another country’s territory with little or no fear of consequence.
Lessons From The Past
I’ve just been reading on 1920 and 1930s Japan and it’s like history is repeating itself. When faced with a slowing economy China has made the choice to enter into militarism, however subtly it is being done. It sounds silly calling it militarism, but a maneuver of the following sort seems like a very serious choice to make for an economy that’s slowing down on account of a severe medical crisis – to annex Hong Kong, to walk into Indian, Vietnamese, and Philippine territory, to punish with economic sanctions and so on
I say this after reading and based on my understanding of this.
What I’m trying to bring attention to, is the matter that is at hand, and the reaction it has evoked, from the Chinese government. Look, every nation’s economy is going through a bit of a hard time and so is the Chinese one, however, the reaction is so haughty that sometimes it’s hard to understand the reason behind such anger.
One reason could well be that the PRC government is very anxious and fearful of how the people of China will react to the slowdown, and thus, it’s punching above its weight in this way.
The further I progress in my book (Pearl Harbor), the more I seem to find the similarities between Japan then and what we now are looking at in India.
There never used to be threats of economic sanctions or such unabashed military intrusions before, but now one can draw a clear correlation between a growing economy and the foreign policy being pursued.
I just want to get into the psyche of the PRC Leadership and see what’s really going on there. So, let’s go.
“Honor and face are important, they’re everything to work for. So, what the leadership believes is growing power must mean more respect. However, this isn’t how they perceive the world is right now. They view and imagine disrespect by powers with lesser prowess than themselves. Sometimes, they believe the more they grow, the more they’re being mocked.
This is a fairly simplistic view to be taken, which doesn’t stand on the whole truth. So, here lies the want to punish those whom they view as not respecting China. Growing prowess also means that they need to dominate, as power is worthy of working for. Here, lies the want to give lots of debt to poorer nations and station troops there for little reason. They expect suzerainty to accepted by these nations. Never must a smaller power even dream of being anything but coy to the largest of them all.”
I’m just trying to play at reading minds and this is what I figure.
The Need For A Unified Naval Force
If this trend continues for another two decades, there seems to be a good probability of some minor military infraction at the very least, that will occur.
Thus, I believe it’s in the interest of global liberty, for the formation of a ‘European Union Naval Force’. There needn’t be a whole battle-ready fleet to be commissioned in a few months from today, but definitely, baby steps need to be taken towards building something that is large and battle-ready for whenever a need arises.
The EU is the world’s second-largest economy and one might wonder why I’m writing the above when I personally mostly think the Union needs to be done away with.
There are strong reasons for why I believe the Union must perish, but at the same time, there is no need to hesitate when it comes to strengthening military friendship and unity. It’s almost the need of the hour.
As I had once told my own Prime Minister, I would be very much in favour of the ENF being deployed to the South China Sea, as common sense would indicate this would be the next target after Hong Kong. In addition, the continuous economic sanctions on other countries it has border disputes with points to another trend — I at least to think either Vietnam or the Senkaku Islands is another flashpoint and must be monitored
Every little infringement that diminishes the rights and freedoms we have which enable human prosperity, and contentment, needs to be fought with the same vigor with which we would fight for our own lives if that were the case. To not do so, would only result in these growing larger and larger.
I wish I could say the same about my country but they still need to wake up from their isolationist, high-horse dreams and I’m starting to think that only when the enemy knocks on the door will common sense prevail in their minds and they’d wake up to understand the need to join Forces and ally, rather than indulge in weird dramatics to justify why continuing to be harassed is fine with them.
Thank you.