The Pentagon report on China and the potential threat posed by its rise is a massive cause for concern. In a major report on China’s military modernization, the Pentagon claimed that China has built a village inside Arunachal’s territory. Earlier, the media had also reported about it, but strangely, the government of India continues to deny it. The report also claims that China has been taking “incremental and tactical actions” to press its claims at the line of actual control (LAC) with India and has unsuccessfully sought to prevent New Delhi from deepening its relationship with the US.
This report has come at a time when China is indulging in aggressive and coercive behaviour with its neighbours, India in particular. In eastern Ladakh as well as in Arunachal Pradesh, the Chinese have been behaving belligerently and aggressively. Since the violent clashes at Galwan in eastern Ladakh, in which soldiers on both sides lost their lives, the Chinese have been continuing to behave aggressively. They have illegally captured Indian territory in Ladakh but are still refusing to leave despite several rounds of talks. The government of India has failed to reclaim the lost territories. The Pentagon makes it clear that China is rising, and that no less than the US, the only existing superpower of the world, sees it as a threat to its domination over the world. This should be a wake-up call for the government of India. China might try to humiliate India along the LAC in order to send a message to the world that if they can humiliate an emerging power like India, they can do it to others also.