Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Saturday that China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific made a military stalemate with India at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) likely to become a flashpoint between the two countries. said that
Rudd, who is considered a leading authority on China and its leadership, said in an interview that China’s actions along the LAC, including creating infrastructure to support the military, “change the reality on the ground.” Said it shows predisposition.
At the same time, Mr. Rudd warned that President Xi Jinping could take steps to resolve the border dispute with India after further consolidating his grip on power at the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress later this year. did not rule out.
“The pattern of China digging into secured ground and building infrastructure of a long-term nature to support air movement, air supply, and road supply shows that this is a dangerous situation. It’s not an indication, it’s a temporary demonstration of China’s strategic resolve pointing towards a long-term diplomatic solution,” he said.
Rudd’s new book, Avoidable War: The Danger of a Catastrophic Conflict Between the United States and Xi Jinping’s China.
Aiming to draw parallels between the situation in the LAC and China’s actions in the South China Sea, also to change the reality on the ground, he added: Proceed to tabulate probabilities. The more assets, the more positive, and the more exposed the usual political and diplomatic isolation, the more likely an incident. ”
Mr. Rudd, who was prime minister from 2007-10 and 2013 and foreign minister from 2010-12, said that after the 20th party congress, President Xi Jinping had “the same level of political and foreign policy power” as Chairman Mao Zedong. said he would have Xi can use the example of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who settled the border dispute with the former Soviet Union, to settle the border issue with India.
“If Xi Jinping sees himself as a historical figure, then, in my judgment, it remains a possibility. In that case, there are two things India needs to consider. Will the Chinese economy become India’s long-term economic development partner if it settles the border as a result of such a strategic initiative?” he said.
“Will India feel economically overwhelmed by the Chinese economy? will affect India’s wider geopolitical and international political interests,” he added.
In response to a question about whether India can trust China, Mr. Rudd said, “The concept of strategic trust is “It doesn’t have a long history in the domestic strategic literature.”
“My experience as an Australian Prime Minister working with Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping, is that two things are fundamental. Despite wanting to trust what China says instead of doing what it says, it is observing what other countries do rather than what they say.
“Secondly, China, ruled by Marxist-Leninist parties, respects strengths and disdains weaknesses… My argument is therefore that the central decision maker of the Chinese system “Summitry is important because it deals with .He has more power than any leader in China since Mao Zedong,” Rudd added.
