THE GEOPOLITICAL WAY

What is CHINA’s

Geographical background

Demography

Culture

Political Environment

Imperatives

Maintaining Internal Unity

Controlling the Buffer Regions

Protecting the Coast

ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS OF CHINESE GEOPOLITICS

• China has an export-oriented economy. It is in a position of dependency. • It has large currency reserves and advanced technology but however

it has cheap labour force• China depends on the willingness and ability of other countries to

import its goods -- as well as the ability to physically ship them. Any disruption of this flow has a direct effect on the Chinese economy.• The primary reason other countries buy Chinese goods is price. They

are cheaper because of wage differentials.

• China’s geopolitical centre of gravity is that the more effective it becomes at exporting, the more of a hostage it becomes to its customers.• There are other issues for China, ranging from a dysfunctional

financial system to farmland being taken out of production for factories.

NINE-DOTTED LINES

Nine-Dotted Lines

• It is a semi-enclosed area bordered on the west by Vietnam, on the east by Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines, on the South by Indonesia and Malaysia, and on the north by China and Taiwan covering an area approximately 550-650 nautical miles wide and a length of over 1,200 nautical miles.

• China’s growing diplomatic, economic, and military power have increased

Beijing’s assertiveness toward the SCS and culminated in it issuing the following nine-dashed map to highlight its territorial, island, seabed, and waterborne claims to this region with an another map reflecting the disputed Parcel and Spratly Islands in the SCS claimed by adjacent countries.

• China has been particularly assertive in asserting its SCS claims by creating a nine-dash line map claiming to give it de facto maritime control over this entire region without regard to international law on claimed land features and without providing transparency for the rationale behind its assertions. Regional countries are responding by increasing defense spending and developing responses to Chinese assertiveness such as the 2014 Australia-Japan defence technology sharing agreement• Taiwan takes a similar position to China claiming an EEZ of 200 nautical miles. In

May 2012, Taiwanese National Security Director General Tsai Der-Sheng announced that Vietnam and the Philippines have asked Taiwan not to work with China on South Sea issues. While Taipei generally favours peaceful solutions to territorial disputes, some Taiwanese scholars and government officials advocate more assertive actions.

CHINA’S GEOPOLITICS AND ITS CURRENT POSITION

• From a political and military standpoint, China has achieved its strategic goals. • The buffer regions are intact and China faces no threat in Eurasia. • Western attempt to force China out of Tibet as an attempt to

undermine Chinese national security. • The greatest military threat to China comes from the United States

Navy. • For China, the primary mission is to raise the price of a blockade so

high that the Americans would not attempt it.

• For China, the primary problem posed by Taiwan is naval. • There is one area in which China is being modestly expansionist --

Central Asia and particularly Kazakhstan. • Chinese-Russian relations have historically been complex. • China does not have a military-based geopolitical problem.

TERRORISM

From the President’s Desk:-

• Asia's powers have recently elected or are poised to elect leaders who are more nationalistic than their predecessors.

• The need for structural reforms to sustain satisfactory growth rates in the face of global economic forces that are disrupting old models.

• US allies in Asia are wondering whether America's recent strategic "pivot" to Asia is credible. Given the feeble US response to the crises in Syria, Ukraine, and other geopolitical hot spots, the American security blanket in Asia looks increasingly tattered.