| The present study examines the strategic issues of why and how China, as an East Asian country and a rising power in the world, exists in the Indian Ocean area. Focusing on China's geopolitical operations in South Asia and some important issues in the Indian Ocean security architecture, this paper attempts to give relative academic response under the frame of geo-strategy research.China is geographically far away from the Indian Ocean. There is also no mouth of the Indian Ocean in China. Starting from the Chinese coast into the Indian Ocean, the shortest route is still thousands of kilometers. In fact, located in the Asia-Pacific region and backed by the Eurasian hinterland, close to the east of the western Pacific waters, China is a traditional East Asian country. In terms of geo-strategy or ocean-strategy, the Indian Ocean does not constitute an important strategic direction of China in the past. In view of the surrounding security situation, geographical limitations and restrictions of their own forces, China's previous strategic focus of ocean has been far away from the Indian Ocean. The Western Pacific Margin, which concerns China's core interests and major concerns, has been concentrated on. This reality and the corresponding distribution of strategic resources are inherent and also reasonable in a long period of history.In the mean time, in view of the study on contemporary Indian Ocean geopolitical economic players, China is an obviously outsider and successor. As a rising star, China's expansion of its influence in Indian Ocean area inevitably exerts some impact on the existing pattern of divided interests and power, either in the aspects of real conditions or psychological state. In addition, the related areas of the Indian Ocean and many surrounding areas, mingled with complex traditional and non-traditional safety issues, have long been regarded as most problematic and dangerous in the world today.Therefore, on the surface, China's "westward" Indian Ocean has confronted with challenges like complex strategic environment and varied positions of different authorities. Moreover, the comparatively geographical disadvantage is bound to add a thorny task for China itself. If not handled properly, these challenges could bring more pressure forward and infringement backward. In view of those disadvantages mentioned above, it is reasonable that China should continue to maintain a distance from the Indian Ocean. However, today's China has performed actively to make any possible achievement in the Indian Ocean. Here rises a question:what kind of strategic planning and policy inspection has been taken into account by China, which inscribed the Indian Ocean into the map of national strategy and considered it as a starting point of China's marine strategy and China's global strategy even though it had not constituted any strategic orientation in China before. The question itself actually contains the focus of the present study.Undoubtedly, the key objective of this study is not limited to answering the question of why the problem exists but how it exists.Indeed, China has currently shown an increasingly aggressive and new strategic attitude to the Indian Ocean. But it has also placed China at the core of global concerns and international public opinions. In the international community, people with ulterior motives have been hyping the so-called "Pearl Chain" strategy, "China threat theory", and the so-called China's ongoing power projection, plundering of resources, and economic colonialism, which affects China's national image and even worsened China's living environment in the Indian Ocean, In the view of some American and Indian strategists, the idea that the rising of national power shall keep in company with desire of predominance is the core of China's strategy of going westward the Indian Ocean. Similarly, the so-called "Pearl Chain" strategy is China's strategy in the Indian Ocean area. Moreover, they think that supporting the port construction and civilian applications in relevant countries constitute a strategic part of China's west expansion and containment action against India.It is acknowledged true that the expansion of China's presence in the Indian Ocean is a historical necessity in the context of the "One Belt and One Road" Initiative. However, the Indian Ocean region is now recognized as a new stage for strategic competition among world powers in the 21st century. And the Chinese factor has already been perceived by the world as an external variable for the regional political pattern and economic development in the Indian Ocean. In recent years, the Indian Ocean region and the Asia-Pacific region have been gradually regarded as an integrated strategic space, incorporated into the strategic vision and pioneering deployment of the United States, India, Australia, Japan and other countries. In particular, American "rebalancing" strategy has oriented to the Indian Ocean, while the US-India relations shows a salient closeness in strategies. The Indian-American strategic triangle has formed a trend that is not conducive to China's development.It is obvious that China has largely involved in some man-made "false perceptions" in international politics and confronted with related strategic dilemmas. In addition, as mentioned above, the Indian Ocean region is not only the place where pirating is most rampant around the globe, but also the essential cruise route of drug trading and arms smuggling. At present, non-traditional security issues have impacted areas stretching from the Sahara Desert to the whole "Islamic arc" of the Indonesian archipelago, further expanding out of the Indian Ocean to the world around. Therefore, as for China, the Indian Ocean region is by no means a place of pleasure, let alone the paradise.Moreover, though China and the Indian Ocean region have increased economic communications in the past few decades, China itself, as an East Asian country in a traditional sense, has remained restrained influence on this region in terms of geopolitics, geo-culture and military force in particular.When both the role of a successor and outsider taken by China and the grim real(?)y and potential strategic opportunities it faces have been taken into consideration, the fact that China has inscribed Indian Ocean into own strategic mapping brings about the second essential question. That is, how China, as an Asian country and the rising world power, takes position in the Indian Ocean today, or put in another way, how it goes "westward" to the Indian Ocean and strategically manage the Ocean.In essence, now in the "One Belt and One Road" strategic context, research on how China moves "westward" the Indian Ocean and how it strategically manage the Ocean have brought major concerns on China's peripheral and regional diplomacy, China's marine and naval strategies and those major issues in the developing process. Those studies would continue to encourage the sparing effort of Chinese government on the diplomatic work and arouse the consciousness among the academic communities.Therefore, it is necessary to provide proper reasons as to why China shall have a say in the Indian Ocean. This article presumes that for a sovereign state, its strategic plan, deployment or move should be based on national interests, which serve as the internal drive for policy-making. At the same time, pressure from other nations, strategic risks, strategic opportunities, strategic ability as well as updates of strategic theories all play significant parts in the formulation and implementation of national strategies. Thus, it is essential to consider the aforementioned elements while studying the logic behind China's "westward" strategy in the Indian Ocean.The "One Belt and One Road" Initiative reflects the forward-looking strategic consciousness and global strategic vision of Chinese policy makers. The "Westward" strategy is at the core of One Belt and One Road Initiative. Under China's "Westward" strategy, South Asia and the Indian Ocean are undoubtedly the major areas of strategic concern by land and by sea all the way westward. Given that the Indian Ocean enjoy several advantages such as its geographic connectedness, abundant resources, growing market demand and development potential, increasing international status etc, the Indian Ocean is tightly related to China in terms of the China's export-oriented economy, energy security, overseas interests, and even China's power and peaceful rise in the globe. In view of both external pressure and internal drive, China could not contemplate its future only from the perspectives of the Pacific Ocean or Eastern Asia. The Indian Ocean has already become an essential part in China's strategic design. Going west to the Indian Ocean has a unique and great strategic significance to China, constituting the "rebalancing" of China's geopolitical strategy in the Indian Ocean, the growing point of China's ocean strategies as well as the peaceful rise of China, In short, China's Westward policy assumes its necessity, possibility, validity, legitimacy, and strategic opportunities.In addition, the "Westward" strategy and China's strategic planning in the Indian Ocean, which are based on a sound grasp of the geopolitical and maritime security in the Indian Ocean, has become an urgent task for Chinese government. Such policy would ensure that China will be able to maintain peace and to expand in the Indian Ocean region.This paper argues that China's "Westward" strategy in the Indian Ocean contains four levels:the westward extension of China's economic power on the economical level; the westward extension of China's political influence on the geopolitical level; the extension of Chinese culture on the geographical level; participation in the safe-guard of Indian Ocean and reinforce China's naval forces on the maritime level. In the past,China's influence in the Indian Ocean lie mainly in the economic aspect. However, as an outside power that not only has extensive overseas interests in the region but also exerts important influence on geopolitical situation, China needs to consider with great discretion as how to deal with the superpower game in this region and how to participate in geopolitical affairs alike. It is also vital that China shall pay close attention to the security issues in the Indian Ocean and participate in the shaping of a model of maritime safety in the Indian Ocean, which shall be based on cooperative security.The architecture of "coordinated security" in India Ocean and "integrated strategy" in South Asia consist this article's two complementary strategic pillars in geo-political development and ocean security for China "westward" strategy. This article is a brief response to the question how China should participate in the India Ocean. |
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