What Could Be The Reason Behind Increasing Presence Of Chinese "Research Vessels" In Indian Ocean? (image-twitter/daniel86cricket)
China has been doing “research” in the Indian Ocean for a while now. Beijing has been accused of sending “too many” research ships to Indian Ocean for several times. India has noted the increase of the presence of Chinese vessels in the Indian Ocean. Noting the sudden rise, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that in the past 20-25 years, there has been a steady increase in the Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean.
The Chinese-run ports in South Asia- Chittagong in Bangladesh, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, and Gwadar in Pakistan are known as “triangle of death” encircling India.
Last year, Chinese vessel Shi Yan 6, was docked on Sri Lanka’s Colombo port for “marine scientific” research off the Sri Lankan coast. The docking has stirred grunts from India and US, similar to the time when China docked Yuan Wang 5 at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port.
According to media report, many Chinese research vessels and warship has docked in Sri Lankan post, without much attention gained from the media over the past 15 years. Only after the visible drift between China and Indian in 2020, did the docking of Chinese vessels at the Lankan ports started to get attention.
Dr Nilanthi Samaranayake, a visiting expert at the United States Institute of Peace said that the vessels from China over the past year have been “different types with different missions and are closely tracked by Indian Navy. The persistent border conflict between China and India since 2020 has elevated New Delhi’s threat perceptions of China’s presence in the Indian Ocean. This factor, combined with greater access to ship tracking data, has resulted in a situation where every visiting Chinese ship is likely to receive media attention for the foreseeable future”, as reported by media.
For a long time China lacked necessary naval capacity to deploy its power in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), and stayed away from adding such ambitions in its public strategic documents. However, things took major changes in recent decades, making Beijing capable of expanding its engagement in the IOR. This raised concerns among Indian and America strategists that China’s growing presence combined with its control of strategically located ports in the region might aid China with military advantages to locations far from its shores.
India ahs been eyeing China’s increasing sophisticated military capabilities and noted the gradually expanding mission sets that extended beyond the waters of the western Pacific. American strategists warned the word about China’s “debt-trap diplomacy”. Both US and India said small countries within the region may not be able to navigate China’s political influence while gaining back their freedom of movement.
As per 2020 Brookings Institution report, there are total of five “meta-mission objectives”, that the Chinese government might pursue in principle, and might already be pursuing in varying degrees. The objectives were: conducting non-combat activities focused on protecting Chinese citizens and investments, and bolstering China’s soft power influence, undertaking counterterrorism activities, unilaterally or with partners, against organizations that threaten China, collecting intelligence in support of operational requirements and against key adversaries, supporting efforts aimed at coercive diplomacy toward small countries in the region, and enabling effective operations in a conflict environment, namely the ability to deter, mitigate, or terminate a state-sponsored interdiction of trade bound for China, and to meaningfully hold at risk US or Indian assets in the event of a wider conflict.
The third objective seems to catch the attention of media outlets, policy makers and strategists. Researchers affiliated with US defense institution have been raising concerns regarding the potential implications of these vessels for US national security.
In a report by Ryan D Martinson and Peter A Dutton of the US Naval War College in 2018, it was noted that around 5 to 10 Chinese scientific research vessels were operating outside of Chinese jurisdictional waters, and particularly in the areas of Indo-Pacific. The report highlighted that most of these Chinese vessels commissioned since 2012 are multifunctional research platform with well developed equipment for collecting oceanic and atmospheric data.
A senior fellow at the Millennium Project in the United States, Asanga Abeyagoonasekera told The Diplomat (a news magazine covering Indo-Pacific region) that the Shi Yan 6 research vessel specialises in geophysical exploration, a capability that might hold potential implications for submarine warfare. Two main concerns raised by Abeyagoonasekera was that China could access critical data regarding the seabed resources in the Indian Ocean, especially in the context of intensified global competition of minerals and energy resources. Another concern is that the said collection of data by the vessel like Shi Yan 6 could be used in future for strategic naval planning, especially those relating to submarine warfare.
The visible slant in the foreign policies of Sri Lanka and Maldives which were once a close of ally of India towards China was also raising concern in India. The recent trends in the international system also dictates that the United States will not be relinquishing its dominant position in the Asia without contesting with China, which is a rapidly rising power.
With inputs from The Diplomat
