Beijing's Bullying Tactics: From China's Expansionary Infra Projects To Salami Slicing Encroachment, Here's All About It

From Bhutan and India along their rugged mountainous border to the South China Sea and Japan's Senkaku Islands, China is asserting its dominance by advancing its borders through unilateral actions as per a report by The Economic Times.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the USA has provided a detailed assessment of People's Liberation Army (PLA) infrastructure developments near the Indian border, highlighting China's significant expansion of military infrastructure in Tibet and Xinjiang.

The CSIS report indicates that China is undertaking extensive construction and upgrades of airports, heliports, roads, and railways, facilitating the rapid deployment of troops, weapons, and supplies closer to its borders.

This expansion has accelerated in recent years, particularly following confrontations with India in 2017 at Doklam and the violent clashes in Galwan Valley in 2020.

In Tibet, all five dual-use airports have received new terminals, hangars, aprons and runways since 2017, while four new airports have been constructed less than 60km from the Indian border.

Lhuntse, Ngari-Burang and Shigatse Tingri Airports fill glaring gaps in the PLA's coverage while Shigatse Peace Airport is the closest to Doklam, and it has now been refurbished with a large underground facility that has at least three entrances.

In Xinjiang, 15 airports have been upgraded since 2017, seven of which are military or dual-use among which comes Hotan located just at 240 km from the Indian border.

According to the same report, Tibet's highway system grew 51 per cent from 2015-20 to a total of 11,820 km with eight roads stretching from the G219 highway towards the Indian border in process of being constructed.

In future, the PLA can use them to quickly reposition troops if another Galwan Valley type clash ever occurred.

In mid 2020, Chinese encroachments in Eastern Ladakh had raised serious concerns in India.

China has since then declined to revert back to the April 2020 status quo in Ladakh, despite numerous efforts in the direction including the disengagement of troops from friction points.

The PLA has demarcated for itself important buffer zones, largely from Indian territory leading Delhi to lose control of areas it formerly patrolled, which is precisely how Chinese salami-slicing methods work.

A report published last year by the Indo-Pacific Security Program of the Center for a New American Security concluded: "While the Chinese and Indian militaries have since pulled back forces from the most contentious standoff sites where the 2020 build-up occurred and established temporary buffer zones, both sides retain high numbers of troops forward deployed along the disputed frontier, and there are several flashpoints that could erupt into another border crisis at any time."

As China continues to assert its dominance through coercive means, affected nations must defend their territorial integrity to prevent further encroachments vigorously. Without concerted efforts to deter China's expansionist agenda, the risk of escalating tensions and conflict along disputed borders remains high.