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Chinese Navy's forays spike amid Covid-19 pandemic
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IANS | 30 May, 2020
China, the first country to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, has
started pushing its People's Liberation Army Navy's activities in South
China Sea as well as the Indian Ocean Region to gain dominance in the
areas, sources said on Saturday.
The 35th Chinese Anti-Piracy
Escort Force (APEF) has recently replaced the 34th APEF deployed in the
Gulf of Aden. "Because of it, around seven People's Liberation Army Navy
ships are in the Indian Ocean Region," said the sources.
The sources also found that China is operating 4 to 5 research vessels in the Indian Ocean Region at present.
A
senior government official said that even though China was the first
country to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in
Wuhan, it seems to have had no major effect on the PLA-Navy's
activities.
"Additionally, a large number of PLA-Navy/Coast Guard
assets, maritime militia and survey ships are deployed in the contested
waters of the South China Sea," said the official.
Intelligence
agencies have reported to the government that the US and French navies,
affected by coronavirus-infested crew on warships while they were
deployed in South China Sea, have vacated the space for the PLA-Navy to
push for its dominance and expansion in those waters.
This has enabled the Chinese government to sense the vacuum and up its ante in the South China Sea over the past few weeks.
Expansion in South China Sea
On
March 29, the Chinese increased surveillance flights by PLA-Air Force
and PLA-Navy in the South China Sea while simultaneously complaining
about the increase in Freedom of Navigation patrols of the US Navy.
On
April 3, the Vietnamese lodged an official protest with the Chinese
following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by a Chinese maritime
surveillance vessel, near its disputed waters with China.
Continuing
with its cartographic invasion of the South China Sea, China also
divided the administration of the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands
into the Xisha and Nansha sub-divisions, which are the Chinese
traditional names for these two disputed island territories.
"The
Chinese have also renamed more than 80 geographic features -- often
underwater at times of high tides -- with traditional Chinese names,"
the official explained.
Maritime Disputes
On March 17, the
Chinese directed their research ship Haiyang Dizhi-8 escorted by a
Chinese Coast Guard vessel to shadow a vessel -- MV West Capella --
engaged by the Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas.
Concurrently,
tensions between China and Indonesia were also simmering following a
series of incidents over fishing activities in the North Natuna Sea,
where a dispute festers between China and Indonesia.
The official
explained that it is quite likely that the "Chinese have been
emboldened by the reports of the spread of coronavirus among frontline
fleet units of the Pacific Fleet, especially the US strike carrier
Theodore Roosevelt."
The Chinese also carried out night combat
exercises off Taiwan for the first time on March 16, and ordered the
carrier Liaoning to transit east of Taiwan and carry out training
manoeuvres in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
There
appears little doubt that China intends to exploit the prevailing
situation and use the assessed policy paralysis in world leadership to
its advantage in the Indo-Pacific, senior officers in intelligence
agencies explained.
Debt-trap diplomacy
For the littoral
nations of the Indian Ocean, the Chinese enterprise continues to roll on
"debt-trap diplomacy", which has become the norm with countries in a
deep embrace with China.
These Chinese actions would likely gain a
firmer footing in the wake of the pandemic as governments look to
reinforce their weakened economies.
Seeing this, the Indian
government, to ensure strategic preparedness, has started to focus on
providing the Indian Navy with the necessary tools to blunt the growing
Chinese capability on sea.
The official explained that the Indian
Navy, which receives the smallest budget share amongst its sister
services, needs to be nurtured to counter any belligerence on sea.
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