New Delhi: The United State Secretary of Defense on Thursday hit out at China for ‘systematic rule-breaking’, economic coercion of smaller nations as well as ‘capitalising on the misfortunes’ of others in times of a pandemic.
Dr Mark T Esper was delivering a keynote address at the 25th anniversary virtual celebrations of the DKI-APCSS (Daniel K Inouye- Asia Pacific Center For Security Studies) in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The DKI-APCSS institute under the Department of Defense established in 1995 promotes dialogue exchange between military and civil security practitioners from more than 100 countries in the Indo-Pacific on regional and global strategic issues.
Talking on the theme of ‘Advancing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific’, Esper said, “Our robust network of partners and allies remains the most enduring asymmetric advantage we have over near-peer rivals -namely China that attempts to undermine and subvert the rules-based order to advance their own interests, often at the expense of others.”
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Under the National Defense Strategy guidelines issued in 2018, US has directed the National Defense University to focus 50 per cent of its curriculum to China and tasked to make PRC (Peoples Republic of China) a ‘pacing threat in our schools, programs and training’ remarked Dr.Esper.
“Under the leadership of the Chinese communist party, Beijing has repeatedly fallen short of its promises to do the following. First to abide by international norms, rules or laws, despite continuing to reap the benefits of international systems and free markets. Second to honour the commitments it made to the international community including promises to save the autonomy of Hong Kong and not to militarise features in the South China Sea,” said Dr.Esper.
“Beijing’s self-serving behaviour, however, is not isolated to just the Indo-Pacific region. Increasingly our like-minded partners around the world are experiencing the CCP’s systematic rule-breaking, debt backed economic coercion and other maligned activities to undermined the rules-based free order that has benefitted nations of all sizes, China included,” he further added.
The top minister in the Trump administration also accused the Chinese military PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) of not serving a nation or its constitution, but rather serving a political entity.
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“Moreover the PRC’s destabilising actions go beyond its subversive political and economic activity. To advance its suppressive agenda the Peoples Liberation Army continues to pursue an aggressive modernisation plan to achieve a world-class military by the middle of the century. This will undoubtedly embolden the PLA’s provocative behaviour in South and East China Seas and anywhere else the Chinese government has deemed critical to its interests,” said the Defence Secretary.
Dr.Esper underlined that the Indo Pacific accounts for more than 60 per cent of the GDP and is home to 6 nuclear nations and 7 of the world’s 10 largest standing armies. “The Indo-Pacific is the epicentre of a great power competition with China," he said where close coordination is needed between America and its partners and allies and small nations.
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Terming the relationship with India as one of the most consequential ones for the US in the 21st century, Esper in response to a question on the tense standoff at the Line of Actual Control cited it as typical 'Chinese bad behaviour'.
"I have spoken to my counterpart in India, the Minister of Defence several times including most recently about these tensions with China. This is another example of how China will try and take advantage of the Corona Virus and what is happening globally to capitalise on what was happening along the Line of Actual Control. Here is another example of Chinese bad behaviour that was not necessary. That said it is good to see that both sides are talking about de-escalating. We encourage that. But in the meantime we are going to continue to build that relationship with India," he said.
The next round of the 2+2 dialogue between the Indian and American Foreign and Defense Ministers is expected to be held virtually in the next few weeks.
Dr.Esper pointed to the improvement and changes made to the US FMS (Foreign Military Sales) Program to increase interoperability with armed forces of partners and allies and deliver critical weapon in time. He cited the supply of F35 helicopters to Japan, seahawks and apache aircraft to India and F16 fighter jets to Taiwan as examples.
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"We are transforming the way we fight by developing a new joint warfighting concept for the 21st century and implementing other initiatives that make us more strategically predictable for our partners and operationally unpredictable to our competitions. These efforts will prepare our military for future conflicts that we hope we won't need to fight but must and will be prepared to win," he said in his remarks.
Incidentally on a day when the State Department imposed Restrictions on certain PRC State-Owned Enterprises and Executives for 'Malign Activities in the South China Sea', Dr.Esper also advocated that partner countries to not do business with Chinese vendors on 5G technology.
"The US and its allies have taken decisive action to counter China's actions to manipulate, disrupt an undermine our technological edge, mainly by denying access to high-risk 5G vendors, something Japan, Australia, and New Zealand did earlier on. I continue to encourage all like-minded partners to carefully consider carefully their choices regarding telecommunications infrastructure and assess the long term collective risks of using Chinese state-backed vendors," Dr Esper said.
He also accused Beijing of hampering global efforts to control the Corona Virus pandemic through to its lack of transparency with the WHO (World Health Organisation)
