Amid China’s growing confrontation with global players, WION, India’s only International news channel, brought together the world’s best minds on China to understand Beijing’s powerplay and create a roadmap for a global response.
In the Global Summit spanning four power-packed sessions, WION decoded China’s military power, propaganda and provocations, its economic rise and the great wall of debt, its ambitions to achieve tech supremacy, and its leader Xi Jinping. The biggest question is why is China making aggressive moves in the middle of a pandemic?
Bruno Maçães the Former Europe Minister for Portugal said, “Chinese authorities and Xi Jinping in particular probably think they’re going to pay a reputation price and how the world regards China anyway, so you might as well take advantage of the opportunity to make some moves that otherwise you would be cautious about. I think Hong Kong is an example of that. India, I think has its dynamics at the same time. I think we would see a much more aggressive and ambitious China”
He added, “I think China is interested to some extent in intimidating India. It sees India as an obstacle and a problem. India, of course, has led the reaction against the belt and road and it now looks like India is going to lead the world’s reaction against Chinese technological dominance. The app ban is very significant, my friends in Beijing were much more concerned about that than they are about the border skirmishes”
What is next for the India China relationship?
India’s former ambassador to China, the man who was instrumental in organizing the Wuhan summit, Gautam Bambawale said, “China has attempted military coercion on India’s borders. China has lost India strategically” He added,” It will not be a peaceful rise for China. I think the answer is very clear to many of us around the world that China is not a responsible stakeholder in the global system and I think I believe that the China dream is becoming a nightmare for many people” “I think this is something to do with his (Xi Jinping’s) approach, his mental makeup. The COVID-19 situation seems to be the time when China feels that it can strike out and hit out at other countries while they are dealing with the COVID-19 situation. We are particularly concerned that the India – China border has become a live border while India is still tackling the pandemic”, he said.
Retd. Lt. Gen S. L. Narasimhan, member of the National Security advisory board of India said, “ The (Belfor) study mentioned that Indian Armed Forces may some kind of advantage over the Chinese armed forces in mountain warfare. The core dimension, the inter boundary between India and China is mountainous and high altitude in many places so that brings in a different dimension than the kind of equipment that they can bring to bear on us so if you put that into perspective, I think we are favorably poised at this point too if anything could go wrong.
In the session on technology
Simon Lacey, the Former Vice President at Huawei technologies said, “I think that the company (Huawei) sort of deluded itself into thinking that as long as it was the leader in 5g and its technology was so far ahead of its competitors and you were indispensable as a company and its technology would be accepted, and it didn’t realize that it was going to be way behind in terms of a lot of people being destabilized and disconcerted by China”
Lacey added, “I don’t think they really anticipated that they would have to defend themselves on things like geopolitical risk” In the same session, Dr. Robert Spalding, the former Senior Director of the United States National Security Council said, “ China is trying to become the Saudi Arabia of data so that they can be dominant in artificial intelligence. It’s about 5g, it’s about artificial intelligence, it’s about autonomy it’s about tracking people the world over and using that data for influence and control”
WION’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Sudhir Chaudhary said, “With China emerging as the global disrupter of the rules-based order, world leaders are looking for the best strategy to deal with it and the first step towards tackling China is understanding it. The world needs to understand China better. The Chinese political ecosystem is so closed and controlled, that people around the world don’t quite know what to expect. They don’t know how to decode Chinese strategy and thought process. Through this summit we’ve tried to explain China and its ways”
The Summit aired on WION on 22nd July 2020 from 6 pm to 9 pm IST
It will air again over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday at 9:30 pm and 10:30 pm IST and on the weekdays – Monday to Thursday at 8:30 pm IST.
The Summit would also be available on its social media and YouTube channel and its website – wionews.com.