{"id":57697,"date":"2020-07-22T11:13:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T01:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=57697"},"modified":"2021-09-03T12:44:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T02:44:25","slug":"chinas-five-finger-punch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/chinas-five-finger-punch\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s five-finger punch"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

As the world struggles to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, which first emerged in China, Chinese President Xi Jinping is pursuing his quest for regional dominance more aggressively than ever. From the Himalayas to Hong Kong and Tibet to the South and East China Seas, Xi seems to be picking up where Mao Zedong left off, with little fear of international retribution.<\/p>\n

The parallels between Xi and the despots of the past are obvious. He has overseen a brutal crackdown<\/a> on dissent, engineered the effective demise<\/a> of the \u2018one country, two systems\u2019 arrangement with Hong Kong, filled<\/a> concentration camps and detention centres with Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang and laid the groundwork<\/a> to remain president for life.<\/p>\n

According to US National Security Adviser Robert O\u2019Brien, \u2018Xi sees himself<\/a> as Josef Stalin\u2019s successor\u2019. Many others<\/a> have compared<\/a> Xi to Adolf Hitler, even coining the nickname \u2018Xitler\u2019. But it is Mao\u2014the founding father of the people\u2019s republic and the 20th century\u2019s most prolific butcher<\/a>\u2014to whom Xi bears the closest resemblance.<\/p>\n

For starters, Xi has cultivated a Mao-style personality cult. In 2017, the Chinese Communist Party enshrined in its constitution a new political doctrine: \u2018Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era\u2019. The ideology is inspired<\/a> by Lenin, Stalin and Mao, but its inclusion in the CCP\u2019s constitution makes Xi the third Chinese leader\u2014after Mao and the architect of China\u2019s modernisation, Deng Xiaoping\u2014to be mentioned in the document. In December, the CCP also conferred upon Xi a new title<\/a>: renmin lingxiu<\/em>, or \u2018people\u2019s leader\u2019, a label associated with Mao.<\/p>\n

Now, Xi is working to complete Mao\u2019s expansionist vision. Mao\u2019s China annexed Xinjiang and Tibet, more than doubling the country\u2019s territory and making it the world\u2019s fourth largest by area. Its annexation of resource-rich Tibet, in particular, represented one of the most far-reaching geopolitical developments in post-World War II history, not least because it gave China common borders with India, Nepal, Bhutan and northernmost Myanmar.<\/p>\n

In fact, Mao considered Tibet to be China\u2019s right-hand palm, with five fingers\u2014Nepal, Bhutan and the three Indian territories of Ladakh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh\u2014that China was also meant<\/a> to \u2018liberate\u2019. Mao\u2019s 1962 war against India helped China gain more territory in Ladakh, after it earlier grabbed a Switzerland-sized chunk, the Aksai Chin region.<\/p>\n

In April and May, Xi had the People\u2019s Liberation Army carry out a series of well-coordinated incursions<\/a> into Ladakh, with the intruding forces setting up heavily fortified encampments. He then deployed tens of thousands of troops along the disputed Line of Actual Control with Ladakh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.<\/p>\n

This \u2018incredibly aggressive action\u2019, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called it<\/a>, led to bloody clashes in Ladakh on 15 June, leaving 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops dead. (US intelligence agencies believe<\/a> China suffered more casualties than India, but whereas India has honoured its fallen as martyrs, China has refused to divulge its losses.) Despite continuing bilateral efforts to disengage<\/a> rival forces, the spectre of further clashes or a war still looms.<\/p>\n

The CCP has not forgotten about the other two fingers, Bhutan and Nepal. Just as China and India began withdrawing troops from the site of the 15 June clashes, Beijing opened another front in its bid for territorial expansion, asserting a new claim<\/a> in Bhutan.<\/p>\n

In 2017, China occupied<\/a> the Doklam Plateau\u2014at the intersection of Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan, and claimed by the latter\u2014following a 73-day military standoff with India, the de facto guarantor of Bhutanese security. Now, China is laying claim to another 11% of the tiny kingdom\u2019s territory, in an area that can be accessed only through Arunachal Pradesh (which Chinese maps already show as part of China). This move advances Xi\u2019s efforts against two of the five fingers simultaneously.<\/p>\n

The fifth \u2018finger\u2019, Nepal, has been drifting away from India and towards China since it came under communist rule two and a half years ago. China aided<\/a> the Nepalese communists\u2019 victory, including by unifying rival factions and funding their election campaign. Since then, China has openly meddled<\/a> in the country\u2019s fractious politics in order to keep the ruling party intact, with its ambassador acting as if she were Nepal\u2019s matriarch.<\/p>\n

But being in China\u2019s strategic orbit has done nothing to protect Nepal from the CCP\u2019s territorial predation. Last month, a leaked Nepalese agricultural department report warned<\/a> that China\u2019s massive road projects have expanded China\u2019s boundary into northern territories of Nepal and changed the course of rivers.<\/p>\n

Of course, altering Asia\u2019s water map is nothing new for China. Tibet is the starting point of Asia\u2019s 10 major river systems. This has facilitated China\u2019s rise<\/a> as a hydro-hegemon with no modern historical parallel. Today, Chinese-built mega-dams near the borders of the Tibetan Plateau give the country leverage<\/a> over downstream countries.<\/p>\n

As the hand metaphor indicates, Tibet is the key to China\u2019s territorial claims in the Himalayan region\u2014and not only because of geography. China cannot claim the five fingers on the basis of any Han ethnic connection. Instead, it points to alleged Tibetan ecclesial or tutelary links, even though Tibet was part of China<\/a> only when China itself had been conquered by outsiders like the Mongols and the Manchus. China\u2019s current claims are nothing more than a power (and resource) grab.<\/p>\n

In other words, the five-fingers strategy, coupled with Chinese expansionism elsewhere, is all about upholding the world\u2019s longest-running autocracy. As long as the CCP\u2014and especially the revisionist Xi\u2014holds a monopoly on power, none of China\u2019s neighbours will be safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the world struggles to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, which first emerged in China, Chinese President Xi Jinping is pursuing his quest for regional dominance more aggressively than ever. From the Himalayas to Hong …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":482,"featured_media":57699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1383,52,772,204],"class_list":["post-57697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-ccp","tag-china","tag-geopolitics","tag-xi-jinping"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina\u2019s five-finger punch | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/chinas-five-finger-punch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China\u2019s five-finger punch | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the world struggles to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, which first emerged in China, Chinese President Xi Jinping is pursuing his quest for regional dominance more aggressively than ever. 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