China has attempted to “seize” control of the Royal Line of Control (LAC) with India by force as part of its territorial aggression, the US national security adviser said, stressing that the time has come to accept that the dialogue and the agreements will not persuade Beijing to change.
India and China are locked in a tense five-month-long border standoff in eastern Ladakh that has significantly strained their relations. The two sides have held a series of high-level diplomatic and military talks to resolve the border dispute. However, no progress has been made to end the confrontation.
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“The CCP’s (Chinese Communist Party) territorial aggression is also evident on its border with India, where China has attempted to seize control of the Royal Line of Control by force,” said US national security adviser Robert O ‘Brien, in a comment on China earlier this week in Utah.
The border dispute between India and China covers the 3,488-kilometer-long Royal Line of Control (LAC). China claims that Arunachal Pradesh is part of southern Tibet, while India rejects it. Chinese territorial aggression is also true in the Taiwan Strait, where the Navy and Air Force of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) continue to carry out threatening military drills, O’Brien said.
“Beijing’s signature international development program, One Belt One Road (OBOR), involves impoverished companies taking opaque and unsustainable Chinese loans to pay Chinese companies employing Chinese workers to build their infrastructure,” he said.
Many of these projects are unnecessary, poorly constructed and “white elephants,” the national security adviser said. “And now the dependence of these countries on Chinese debt leaves their sovereignty eroded and with no choice but to qualify the party line in the UN votes or any other issue that the Chinese Communist Party considers a red line,” he said. O’Brien also noted that China’s other international aid efforts include selling surveillance systems and similar repressive tools to “rogue regimes” around the world, including Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. “The time has come to accept that dialogue and agreements will not persuade or force the People’s Republic of China to change. There is nothing to be gained by looking away or turning the other cheek. We’ve been doing that for too long, ”he said.
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O’Brien said the United States must stand up to the Chinese and protect the American people.
“We must promote American prosperity, practice peace through force and promote American influence in the world,” he said, adding that under President Donald Trump’s leadership that is exactly what the United States has done.
O’Brien said the Trump administration has taken a competitive approach to China. That approach, he said, has two main goals. First, improve the resilience of US institutions, alliances and associations to prevail in the face of the challenges China presents; and the second is to impose a tangible cost to force Beijing to cease or reduce actions harmful to the vital national interests of the United States and its allies and partners.
“President Trump has taken decisive action to achieve these goals. He is working to prevent companies from responding to the CCP’s intelligence and security apparatus, ”O’Brien said.
Citing examples, he said that Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE have been prevented from accessing Americans’ personal and private data and national secrets. The Trump administration, he said, has also imposed import and export restrictions on semiconductor technology from the United States and other exports going to Huawei and similar Chinese telecommunications corporations.
“Our democratic partners are starting to follow us. Last month, the UK joined democracies such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Sweden to commit to using trusted providers to build their future 5G networks, ”said O’Brien.
“Operators like Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, NTT in Japan and others have banned the use of Huawei equipment on their networks. The Trump administration is aggressively investigating and prosecuting economic espionage, ”he said.
O’Brien said the Trump administration has strengthened its military relations in the Indo-Pacific.
“An important partnership that will be one of the most important for the United States in the 21st century, India, is thriving,” he said. He also noted that the United States has signed an expanded US military access to Singapore’s air and naval bases. The country is also working closely with Japan, Australia and New Zealand to strengthen relations with the Pacific islands, especially with Timor. It is also working closely with Mongolia.
However, O’Brien said that even when the United States competes with China, it welcomes cooperation where the interests of the United States align. “The United States has deep and abiding respect for the Chinese people and enjoys long-standing ties with that country, including our alliance in World War II,” O’Brien said.
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