CHINA AT SEA

HAVING BURNT ITS FINGERS, CHINA IS MOUNTING PRESSURE ON BHARAT TO SUPPORT ITS “ONE CHINA” POLICY IN THE WAKE OF AGGRESSIVE US INTERVENTION IN TAIWAN. BUT BHARAT IS IN NO MOOD TO PLAY THE BALL

- JAIBANS SINGH

It is said that due to China's massive economic and military power, President Xi Jinping is in a position to have the last word while carving out the relationship of his country with the rest of the world and more particularly with India? A recently published book, The Last War: How AI Will Shape India’s Final Showdown with China authored by Pravin Sawhney has alluded that China can militarily overcome India in ten days due to the strength of its artificial intelligence capability.

The recent visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States Representatives, has negated the aforementioned arguments. It has exhibited the vulnerability of the Chinese regime that could do nothing more than describing the visit as reckless, irresponsible and extremely irrational. The Chinese had said that Pelosi would be playing with fire. Well, she has escaped the flames with considerable ease and shown the Chinese their place.

Pelosi, on her part, was wholesome in her praise of the democratic credentials of Taiwan; she praised what she called “Taiwan’s bubbling democracy” and swore eternal friendship of the US with the island nation.

After having engineered a successful political coup, the US diplomatic machinery is now attempting to ease the tension by playing down the visit. The White House has termed the visit as a “private affair.” However, nobody, and least of all the Chinese leadership, is convinced by the US diplomatic rhetoric.