Expansionist attitude of China is alarming

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a defiant speech hailing the country's rise that elicited loud cheers from a carefully chosen crowd at a celebration of the centenary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party, has shocked the world with his rude statement that anyone who tries to bully China will face broken heads and bloodshed.

He appeared to be hitting back at the US and others that had criticised the rising power's trade and technology policies, military expansion and human rights record. Xi warned on Thursday that any foreign force trying to bully China will encounter a great wall of steel erected by over 1.4 billion Chinese people and its powerful military.

In a keynote address at a highly choreographed ceremony from the balcony of Tiananmen Gate, Xi underlined that the reunification of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China.

As a matter of fact, China considers Taiwan part of its territory, to be absorbed into the mainland- by force if necessary. It is true that China opposes Taiwanese independence since it believes that Taiwan and mainland China comprise two portions of a single country's territory.

Earlier, Taiwan was known as the Republic of Formosa. In 1949, the Chinese government fled to Taiwan when the Communist Party of China took control of the mainland during the Chinese Civil War, leading to the current situation. While Taiwan is a multi-party democratic state, China is a unitary one-party socialist republic.

It may be recalled that last year the US sent a top diplomat to Taiwan with an intention to strengthen US-Taiwan relations, but this sparked an immediate rebuke from China. The US had some ulterior motives behind the strengthening of relations between the US and Taiwan. Evidently, Washington had some plans tucked up their sleeves to teach China some lessons for China's failure to give updates on the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was true that Coronavirus had broken out in Wuhan in China for the first time and China supressed its further information from sharing to the rest of the world. This made the US and major European nations swear to punish China for its irresponsible act on the Coronavirus issue.

Xi Jinping is furious with the US as it pursued a hardline policy towards China targeting it on several fronts including trade, human rights and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Xi's statement that his government will not allow anymore any foreign force to bully or subjugate his country is very serious and hence a grave threat to the world.

Unfortunately, it is China that has assumed arrogance and bullied its neighbours. It is very good that India has formed an alliance with the US, Australia and Japan against the growing power of China especially when it had menacingly bullied India across the border.

China, enviably advanced in almost all spheres of life is surging forward to dominate the world especially in the South East Asia. India therefore needs to block China's growing hegemonic influence in the region by striking an alliance with these countries. Moreover, a highly treacherous country like China where there is no democratic set up, may use its force against India to weaken us. So, India needs an alliance with the US, Japan Australia to counter Chinese expansionist attitude.

T K Nandanan, Kochi

Communist Party of China (CPC) has celebrated 100 years of its founding, with a terse and unambiguous message to the rest of the world that those who bully - forged by 1.4 billion Chinese people, would find themselves on a collision course, with a great wall of steel forged by its people.

This is a message that the rest of the world clearly understands, to fathom the degree of isolation that China is presently facing in the global scenario, in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, which is in the second year that the world countries are enduring in terms of growing number of deaths, and dismal economy scenario – not knowing, for how long.

China is enticing vulnerable countries in Asia with liberal economic assistance, to finally make them come under its sway, akin to a money lender extending loans, and the recipient is unable to pay back the loan, even the interest component of it, regularly; enabling the lender to have a free run on his property. The reason is simple - large amounts given as long term loans are not governed by a clear cut, decent understanding and fair agreement.

There are unseen clauses and conditions that the receiver fails to see, until the noose tightens around the neck, and suffocates with no reprieve in sight as things unfold later, to take the Chinese domination and assertion as fait accompli. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Manutius and Srilanka are some examples in this regard. Pakistan is beguiled into CPEC dream, to sideline and berate India, as large parts of the CPEC project passes through an area which is under the illegal occupation of Pakistan, belonging to India.

China is bringing in its own labour force and technology, without caring for the local workforce of Srilanka, who are jobless and seeking employment.

K V Raghuram, Wayanad