China’s Wu-Zi Strategy and Its Indian Perspective

At the time when India was prospering under the leadership of mighty Magadha King Shishunaga in year 400BC and Indian Armies were knocking the door of Middle east, few thousands Kilometres away in Handan, China, A Chinese General named Wu-Qi was busy writing his book on the military strategy. Though only a part of this book is available now but when we see the offensive postured of China, the Wu-Qi Strategy which is commonly known as Wu-Zi is reflected verbatim in the action of Dragon.

Let’s analyse Wu-Zi first. The book speaks of a strategy to surround the enemy much before the conflict starts. It says that king must make kingdoms surrounding its enemy as his friend and in return they should support him in its logistics and other material support. In fact, rather than war tactics, Wu-Zi emphasizes more on Logistics and supply lines of an Army. It says that the country must keep its channels of maintenance secured and open under all circumstances. It describes in detail as to how a king should establish its strong points in the critical places so that not only they serve as a logistics hub but also help neutralise the enemy in the event of a war.

Wu-Zi briefly touched upon another dimension of having a strong and self-sustained military. It discourages dependence on outside military help unless extremely required. It reveals strategy about secrecy and propaganda of its war machines. It says that the actual power of a king should never be known to the enemy and the propaganda should be made in such a way that enemies should always be afraid.

It further reveals that the individual strength and capability if a soldier matters more than the number of Soldiers. It directly means edge to quality over quantity to make few soldiers more lethal than recruiting large number of soldiers.

In the current context, Wu-Zi seems to be the official strategy book of China. After the industrial revolution in China and the recent phase of its military modernisation, China started doing exactly what Wu-Qi wrote. Firstly, they started with investing in poor and developing nations across the world who were located at strategic points. They invested and slowly compelled these countries to behave as per the whims and fancies of China. Some of the ASEAN Countries, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Maldives, Pakistan and some African countries have fallen victim to this strategy. The rules are simple, first pump in the money and then change the repayment clauses forcing the country in a situation that it is not able to re-pay the loans. Then negotiate on own terms so that the country is compelled to dance to the tunes of China.

The second aspect of Wu-Qi was to secure lines of communication and as we saw, the forced domination of South China Sea started. Later, China started the String of Pearl and Belt and Road initiatives with an aim of securing its supply lines through central Asia, Pakistan and maritime routes so that in the event of a crisis, it can sustain itself. It is now establishing its military bases at all the major trade choke points of the world. Jiwani in Pakistan, Djibouti in Africa, Hambantota in Sri Lanka and also in Maldives.

The third aspect of Wu-Zi about Military production took a strong leap after 1995 and since then the military might of China has increased many times. They are the fastest growing military in the world as of now however the actual capability of their war machines is still unknown. Because of the censorship of media, the outside world comes to know only what the dragon wants them to know.

Recently, China re-structured its Armed forces in last three years and not only they reduced the overall number of soldiers but equipped them with best possible war gadgets and training which made them much more lethal and more war effective.

The strategy to surround the enemy by investing in its neighbouring kingdoms is an open fact as China made efforts to establish friendly relationships with Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Maldives in addition to Russia. This reveals that who could be the possible enemy of China which undoubtedly is India as of now. The recent statement of Chinese premier about fighting for every Inch of land is targeted to India only because we are the only major country having territorial disputes with China.

So what India should do it is a tough question. It is a known fact that today’s India is not the same as we were in 1962. Like China we have also grown however, if directly compared, we significantly lack in the military might. Unlike China, we are not concerned with our defence budget which should grow at a higher pace now. We are still hovering at a figure of average 2.5% allocation of GDP for defence. We can have welfare activities for the citizen only when we survive. As of now It is like putting things of leisure in a home where the door itself is broken.

In context of China, the serious point is that we don’t have enough time. The negligence and corruption of previous governments has already ruined the defence of the country. With the recent incidents of Doklam if seen in the light of recent speech of Xi- Xinping presents a very scary picture.

While on one hand India should establish its foothold worldwide to counter Chinese influence, need of the day is to speed up indigenous defence production and ensure sustainability of resources. We must come out of the decades long mindset that the enemy is Pakistan only. In fact, it’s now the collaboration of Sino-Pakistan Forces and we must prepare for a two-pronged defence of the country.