As the stand-offs persist at the border in Ladakh for the last more than two years, India has demonstrated greater will to stand up against China since April 2020 as the Galwan clash galvanised the nation to reset the Sino-Indian ties.
Making this assertion, BJP National Vice President Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda has said India’s steps during the Ladakh conflict were those that no other nation had ever dared to take against China, including banning China-made mobile applications and facing the military threat with matching force-levels. He made these observations at an international online event over the weekend to release the Hindi version of a study report on ‘Mapping Chinese Footsteps and Influence Operations in India.”
Panda said he has been involved in Track-2 diplomacy with China for years, but the kind of revelations brought out by the New Delhi-headquartered think-tank Law and Society Alliance on the deep influence Communist China wields among the academia and research institutions have shocked him.
“This is a shocking, must-read study report,” Panda said, releasing the Hindi version, alongside senior China experts from India including Centre for China Analysis and Strategy Jayadeva Ranade, Chennai Centre for China Studies Director General Commodore R. S. Vasan (Retired), and policy commentator Arun Anand.
Sharing his experience of handling Chinese diplomats during Track-2 engagements, Panda said they were the only ones during such interactions, who never went off the script of their Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He highlighted the existence of 'debt-trap diplomacy' through China’s Belt and Road Initiative to increase its influence all over the world, from Sri Lanka to the African nations.
The Law and Society Alliance’s report was first brought out in English a year ago, making India’s security apparatus to take note of its contents, and the strategic affairs community worldwide to mull the deep penetrations among the academia, think-tanks and media that Communist Party of China had achieved over the years. “The main aim for the Hindi version was to ensure that the report reached a larger audience in India and also to update and enhance several points within the report,” Law and Society Alliance chairman N. C. Bipindra said.
Jayadeva Ranade, in his address, said the report should sensitise Indian population to Chinese efforts to increase their influence, specifically referring to the CCP’s United Front Works Department and how it is a secretive, subversive and effective party intelligence organisation.
