"Cabbage strategy" as a method of ensuring China’s sovereignty on the China-Indian border

Abstract

In May 2020, one of the largest conflicts in recent decades occurred on the Sino-Indian border. Against the background of discussion of heated armed clashes, observers have also noted that in the past years China has been using hybrid tactics as means of ensuring its control over the Line of actual control on the border with India. This article examines the hybrid tactics of the Chinese side to ensure sovereignty on the border with India the PRC's policy of installing military and civilian infrastructure in disputed and border areas. In the areas claimed by India and Bhutan, Chinese objects for various purposes appear - from camouflaged barracks and installations of unclear purpose to residential villages. These installations testify to the application by China of the so-called "сabbagestrategy" - the gradual "surrounding" the enemy with its infrastructure in order to establish de facto Chinese military and economic control over the disputed territories. In addition, Beijing has launched a large-scale development program for the border Tibet Autonomous Region in order to strengthen its borders. Such actions are hybrid tactics used by China in other territorial disputes, for example, around the islands in the South China Sea. They allow the PRC to have a military superiority over the opponent, to intimidate him with its economic and military influence in the region. Such actions fit into the framework of one of the priorities declared by the current Chinese leadership: the protection of national borders and the restoration of sovereignty over the territories “lost” during the so-called century of humiliation.