Chinese ‘cartographic offensive’ is part of its ‘Three Warfare Strategy’

 Major Gen. S. B. Asthana

NEW DELHI: The 2023 edition of the standard map of China, released by the Ministry of Natural Resources, People’s Republic of China (PRC), is neither the first attempt to illegally document unilateral claims on sovereign territories of other countries nor the last one.

The 2023 edition of the standard map of China, released by the Ministry of Natural Resources, People’s Republic of China (PRC), is neither the first attempt to illegally document unilateral claims on sovereign territories of other countries nor the last one.

It has been published by design to documentarily justify its illegal claims by launching a cartographic offensive. It forms part of legal warfare as a component of three warfare strategies in an attempt to produce legal justification for its illegal claims.

Cartographic Offensive

The 2023 edition of the standard map of China released on August 28 illegally shows Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin (which is an integral part of India) in Chinese territory, besides showing the South China Sea and Taiwan too as Chinese territory.

India has already launched a diplomatic protest, and it’s fair to assume that such an act must have caused discomfort among other claimants of the South China Sea, Taiwan, and other users of the South China Sea too. The other part of this cartographic aggression is giving Chinese names to places in other countries, where it extends its illegal claims. Although it is quite certain that such an act, in isolation, does not change anything on the ground, the intention, timing, and strategy behind such repeated acts are worth an analysis.

Why a new map now?

The map was released ten days prior to the G20 Summit. China anticipates that the intention of many countries in the G20 is to criticise aggression and encroachments by large countries, be it Russian kinetic operations in Ukraine or China’s incremental encroachments in the South China Sea, East China Sea, or Taiwanese air and maritime space. The illegal maps released by China so far (including the current one) form the basis for building the background for ‘legal war’ to claim that all its activities are purely defensive to protect its own sovereign territory. That would be China’s stance in the G20 or any possible bilateral between China and India, if it happens!

It is also an attempt to put the other side on the defensive at the negotiation table by adopting a maximal position in the beginning. The conversation between Chinese President

Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the BRICS Summit 2023, as reported by Chinese media, “agreed to maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels”, indicating no commitment to disengagement.

The map release is therefore a smart move to score a point and derail negotiations or disengage. A subtle attempt to divert the attention of Chinese people from the economic downslide by using such gimmicks can’t be ruled out.

Chinese Strategy of Three Warfare

The above example of legal warfare is part of the Chinese Strategy of Three Wars.” China introduced this strategy, comprising the concepts of public opinion warfare,

psychological warfare and legal warfare, when it revised the “Political Work Guidelines of the People’s Liberation Army” in 2003. The Three Warfare Strategy’s objective is to win by suppressing the enemy’s desire to fight, or, in Sun Tzu’s words, ‘winning without fighting. Through deceit, diplomatic pressure, information operations involving rumours, false narratives, and harassment, it is intended to influence the decision-making of the adversary. Illegal maps like the one shown above give reality to psychological warfare and propaganda, which are frequently employed to weaken the resolve of the enemy and secure the support of the home population to wage a protracted war.

How does it impact the China-India border situation?

Notwithstanding the optics of Notwithstanding the optics of the “Modi- Xi conversation’ at the BRICS Summit 2023, this illegal map further increases the trust deficit between the two countries, and no change in ground position is anticipated.

The political intentions of China are to continue the standoff, put on a façade of talking with no results, hoping that the existing positions become the new normal with the passage of time, even if India continues to say “India-China relations cannot be normal unless the border situation is”.

India, on the other hand, has learned not to believe China and will continue to firmly defend its position on borders and its territorial integrity. Both sides will have to bear the burden of additional deployment until India can generate some more leverage in a multi-dimensional power play with other strategic partners. Unless the political cost of not resolving border tension becomes greater than the cost of resolving it, for China, the possibility of normal relations is remote. (IANS)

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