China Shakes Up the Maritime Balance in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 Shen Dingli, ‘Don't Shun the Idea of Setting up Overseas Military Bases’, January 28, 2010, at http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2010-01/28/content_19324522.htm. 2 Edward Wong, ‘Chinese Military Seeks to Extend Its Naval Power’, New York Times, April 23, 2010. 3 Youssef Bodansky, ‘The PRC Surge for the Strait of Malacca and Spratly Confronts India and the US’, Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, Washington, DC, September 30, 1995, pp. 6–13. 4 Manu Pubby, ‘China's New N-Submarine Base Sets off Alarm Bells’, Indian Express, May 3, 2008. 5 The term ‘string of pearls’ was first used in a report entitled ‘Energy Futures in Asia’, commissioned by the US Department of Defence's Office of Net Assessment from defence contractor Booz-Allen-Hamilton. For details, see David Walgreen, ‘China in the Indian Ocean Region: Lessons in PRC Grand Strategy’, Comparative Strategy, 25(2), 2006, pp. 55–73. Also see Jae-Hyung Lee, ‘China's Expanding Maritime Ambitions in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean’, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 24(3), 2007, pp. 553–554. 6 For a detailed explanation of the security ramifications of the Chinese ‘string of pearls’ strategy, see Gurpreet Khurana, ‘China's “String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean and Its Security Implications’, Strategic Analysis, 32(1), 2008, pp. 1–22. 7 Ziad Haider, ‘Oil Fuels Beijing's New Power Game’, Yale Global Online, at http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/oil-fuels-beijings-new-power-game. 8 On India's role in shaping Sino-Pakistan ties, see Harsh V. Pant, ‘The Pakistani Thorn in China-India–US Relations’, The Washington Quarterly, 25(1), 2012, pp. 83–95. 9 Saibal Dasgupta, ‘China Mulls Setting up Military Base in Pakistan’, Times of India, January 28, 2010. 10 The rapidly changing balance of power in the Asia-Pacific is discussed in Harsh V. Pant, China's Rising Global Profile: The Great Power Tradition, Sussex Academic Press, Portland, OR, 2011, pp. 11–28. 11 Geoffrey Till concludes from this that the Chinese government appears ‘to have a very clear vision of the future importance of the sea and a sense of the strategic leadership needed to develop maritime interest’. Geoffrey Till, Seapower: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century, Frank Cass, London, 2004, p. 102. 12 For a detailed examination of the contemporary state of Sino-Indian relations, see Harsh V. Pant, The China Syndrome: Grappling with an Uneasy Relationship, HarperCollins, New Delhi, 2010. 13 Manu Pubby, ‘Indian Submarine, Chinese Warship Test Each Other in Pirate Waters’, Indian Express, February 5, 2009. 14 Ben Bland and Girija Shivakumar, ‘China Confronts Indian Navy Vessel’, Financial Times, August 31, 2011.