Pakistan has increasingly become a pawn in Chinese policy: Air Chief

The most important national security challenge is firstly to understand China and their possible game plan, he says

Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria. File

Pakistan had increasingly become a pawn in Chinese’s policy, and under an increasing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) related debt trap, further military dependencies in the future would happen, according to Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal (ACM) R.K.S. Bhadauria.

“Our most important national security challenge is firstly to understand China, their possible game plan and the deepening and evolving Sino-Pakistan relationship. We are all well aware that China’s aspirations are on the global front and regional domination is a part to global leadership that they aspire,” he said speaking at a webinar by Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on Tuesday.

The U.S. exit from Afghanistan had opened increased options for China in the region, both direct and through Pakistan, allowing it a possible entry into Central Asia that it had been eyeing for sometime now, he stated.

To a question on the role played by IAF in the ongoing standoff in Eastern Ladakh, he said China had undertaken heavy deployment. “Whatever actions we had taken, some very serious and robust actions, it has had its result and we can see that they have stopped in their tracks and they have continued to remain there.”

Any Sino-Indian conflict was not good for China at the global front, he asserted. “If the Chinese aspirations are global, then it does not fit in their grand plans, and, therefore, what is the Chinese objective of their actions in Eastern Ladakh?, he said.

Listing out a series of likely causes of the Chinese actions in Eastern Ladakh, he said that it could also be a totally “military dominated misadventure” that escalated, given the rapid decrease in trust deficit post COVID-19, the Chinese state position and possibly a loss of faith in the action later continued to escalate.

Talking of the borders, ACM Bhadauria said that on the northern borders, the Himalayan barrier, which separated South Asia with China, has been “literally flattened” by the massive infrastructure development and the time it took to travel large distances had rapidly shrunk. The western border had become active the day Pakistan was created, he stated.

‘String of pearls’

To a question on the IAF’s capabilities in the maritime domain, ACM Bhadauria said they now have SU-30MKIs equipped with BrahMos cruise missiles, and if used along with refuellers, whatever was talked of ‘string of pearls’, was all within reach. “There is no target that exists in the ‘string of pearls’ that cannot be targeted,” he said.

China has set up a series of dual use facilities in various countries in the Indian Ocean and they are often referred as the ‘string of pearls.’

Referring to the Chinese debt trap diplomacy, he said this had allowed foreign created and controlled ports and facilities “very close to India’s mainland and island territories.” “This is something we have to start factoring increasingly”, he stressed, underscoring the new People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) doctrine that emphasised the importance of developing force protection capabilities to counter the U.S. global dominance. This could have a direct impact on India’s security matrix, he pointed out.

Afghan scenario

On regional developments, ACM Bhadauria said the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan could result in an upsurge in violence and regional powers jockeying for increased influence in the country, thereby increasing instability. “Of course, Pakistan has already jumped ships to take advantage of this shifting scenario to become more relevant in Afghanistan,” he remarked.