Amidst Sri Lanka’s socio-political and socio-economic crisis, it is being subjected to the game of China territorial domination. Even though Chinese officials have time and time again emphasized that Yuan Wang 5 is a scientific research ship and no countries will be harmed Indian and American governments are sceptical about the ship boarding so close to Indian Territory.
The American Intelligence services have been providing information to India-Sri Lanka about the possible threat that can be caused by Yuan Wang 5. While the Chinese official has stressed time and time again that it is a ship that is used for scientific purposes and not surveillance.
The Reports suggest otherwise – that its systems have been flagged since it has been trying to evaluate the military installations in the peninsular using its superior satellite technology. Moreover, this is no ordinary ship that is coming to the port for resupply and refuelling, rather it’s a ship like no other.
It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology that has the capability of being used for transoceanic aerospace observation using satellite images. It also has been used to track satellites, rocket launches and ballistic missiles. It is also fitted with a strong enough radar system that can be used to spy on the military installations in South India, posing a direct threat to national security.
India has raised concerns about National security and in response, China has said that these accusations are “senseless” and urged not to disturb the normal exchanges between China and Sri Lanka.
For China, its navy is the most effective asset which is also the world’s largest Navy having 300 more ships than the United States. Its marine and amphibious capabilities were showcased to Taiwan earlier last week in a live fire exercise around Taiwan.
Effectively creating a blockade trying to disrupt the Taiwanese economy. Hence it can be understood why having a potential surveillance element is a serious threat to India and many other south-east Asian countries.
Given the recent, economic, social and political condition in Sri Lanka, China is essentially using this chaos and instability in their own favour especially when the country is in dire need of funds. Another factor that was played in favour of Sri Lanka was public opinion.
China for a long time has been lending multi-billion dollars as funds to boost the Sri Lankan economy, while the common population thinks that the political, social and economical instability has been caused by the incompetency of their government.
The common people of China at this moment are nothing short of a ray of hope and the possibility of injection of capital into their economy, hence the needs of the host country have surpassed the needs of the neighbouring country.
Looking at the current geopolitical scenario in the Pacific theatre is alarming. The Chinese hunger for territorial domination, US interest in Taiwan, dwindling China and India relationship and Russian-China relationship pose an imminent threat to the stability of the region.
