The South China Morning Post (October 17) said that retired PLA Senior Colonel Ouyang Wei,
who after retiring from the PLA National Defence University is now working with the Grandview
Institution, said in a recent report that China faces increasingly serious challenges at its land and sea
borders on almost every side and must urgently reinforce its defences in these regions. The
assessment from Ouyang Wei, a retired professor with the PLA National Defence University, in a
report written on October 12 and titled 'Current Situation in the Building and Development of
China's Border and Coastal Defence' has been published as the US steps up its military presence in
the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, and uncertainties grow on China’s land borders with
India, Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea. In the report, Ouyang said the country was facing
encroachment, secession, and terrorism in some border areas. India-specific comments by Ouyang
Wei state "India takes China as a strategic contestant and adopts an approach of “defending the north
and advancing eastward”. It has deployed forces of comparative advantage against China in the
disputed land border areas, intensifying its encroachment on China's territory. At the same time, it
has increased its budget in naval forces and implemented the “Act East Policy” to push into the
Pacific Ocean. Joining the “Indo-Pacific Strategy” system, India vigorously interacts with the
United States, Japan, and Australia. It keeps monitoring and preventing China from expansion into
the Indian Ocean. Countries like the Philippines and Vietnam that have unresolved disputes with China over maritime rights and interests are trying to leverage the endorsement of major countries
from outside the region so as to counterbalance China’s increasing control over the South China Sea
and to grab their own vested interests. Apart from that, the instability and uncertainty in the Korean
Peninsula, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and other regions has direct impact on China's border and coastal
defence. And the possibility of intervention by the major powers from outside the region is on the
increase". In a subsequent paragraph he added "China has also signed boundary treaties with
Myanmar, Nepal, Laos, and Vietnam (except India and Bhutan) successively and established the
ASEAN Free Trade Area, which has stabilized the security in the southwest border area as a whole.
Keeping a negotiation mechanism and announcing the political guidelines for the settlement of the
boundary issue, China has inked the border defence cooperation agreement with India in 2013 in an
effort to reduce border friction. However, out of its strategic coveting in the Indo-Pacific region and
encouraged by the US Indo-Pacific Strategy, India has readjusted its strategy towards China in
recent years, taking a hardline anti-China stance on the Belt and Road Initiative and territorial
disputes. It has built up military deployment in border areas and encroached on China's territory.
The 2017 Doklam Standoff in the Sikkim sector of the China-India border, the 2019 Ladakh clash,
and the 2020 border conflict in the Galwan river valley that resulted in casualties, show that the task
of defending and managing the Sino-Indian land border is far more demanding than in other
directions. As strategically both China and India have clear intention to avoid military conflict, and
besides, the reorganization of China’s military forces acts as a counterweight to India's deployment
of border forces, the Sino-Indian border disputes are held under control for the time being. It is very
unlikely that local clash and war harming the overall stability of the border areas and bilateral
relations should occur". He also discussed the situation with Myanmar and maritime territorial
issues in detail.
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