Dragon’s Mind: The Chinese

Strategic View continues....

It can safely be assumed that in a conflict situation China will

either fight, or not fight, in accordance with the teachings of Sun Tzu

and all his subsequent interpreters and amplifiers. Since Sun Tzu started

by saying, ‘To win without fighting is best’, therefore the first question

that Indian strategists will have to ask themselves is whether the

Chinese have actually already achieved their military objectives vis-à-vis

India by not fighting since 1962. If this proves is true, it means that

militarily China has already placed India in the position it wants India

to be in, wherein India no longer poses any threat to China, and has, at

best, merely nuisance value in its ability to disturb the peace and

tranquility along the Indo-Tibet border.

WINNING WITHOUT FIGHTING



In any future conflict situation with India, whether as part of a India￾Pakistan crisis, or in a purely Sino-Indian context, China will be guided by the dictums of Sun Tzu, the master martialist, in his classic of strategy, ‘The Art of War’, in particular that ‘to win without fighting is

best. He amplifies this by saying:

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence, supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.



China’s highest leadership, the Standing Committee of the

Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as well as China’s

highest military leadership, the Central Military Commission of the

CCP act accordingly, and thus even China’s diplomatic efforts need to

be seen in the above light, because they will be part of China’s efforts to

achieve its aims without fighting. The entire effort will again be guided

by Sun Tzu’s dictum:

True excellence is to plan secretly, to move surreptitiously, to foil the

enemy’s intentions and balk his schemes, so that at last the day

may be won without shedding a drop of blood.

To be continued....