Signalling expansionist intentions and its rise on the worldwide stage, China delivered a double whammy to India on April Fool’s Day and the subsequent by immediately meddling into India’s sovereignty and its space of affect within the Indian Ocean area.

A day earlier than China below paramount chief Xi Jinping renamed 11 sundry geographical places in India’s Arunachal Pradesh on April 2, which was promptly rejected by New Delhi, it named 19 sub-surface options within the South Indian Ocean, some 2,000 kilometres away from the Indian peninsula. Albeit the Chinese propaganda media has known as it a projection of Beijing’s “soft power”, the earmarking of territory far-off from Chinese mainland after the China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association (COMRA) was awarded an exploration contract of 15 years by the International Seabed Authority in 2011 in South-West ridge of the Indian Ocean close to Madagascar. It is one other matter that India was additionally awarded exploration work north of the Chinese exploration blocks on the identical South-West Ridge of the Indian Ocean for valuable metallic polysulphide modules.

“The renaming of sundry geographical locations in Arunachal Pradesh and in the deep Indian Ocean is reflective of the Middle Kingdom mentality of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and mirrors the British Imperial approach in the 19th century to project dominance and power. Even diplomats posted in China are given mandarin names while presenting their diplomatic papers,” mentioned a South Block official.

Out of the 19 seabed options named within the Indian Ocean, six options are off the coast of Oman and the Chinese port of Djibouti off African horn, 4 options are off the coast of Madagascar, eight are on the south-west ridge of the Indian Ocean and one characteristic is east of the ridge characteristic in deep Indian Ocean in direction of Antarctica.

Six of the options particularly Bangu Knoll, Huapengu hill, Langzhangg Hill, Shugu Hill, Tanggu Hill and Zhangu Hill have been proposed by the China Navy Hydrographic Office in 2021. Other options particularly Yaogu Seamoount and Yugu Hill have been proposed by the Navy Hydrographic Office in 2020, and one other one Houxian Seamount was proposed by COMRA in the identical yr. One characteristic particularly Sanboa Hill was proposed by COMRA in 2019, one other one particularly Tainlong Seamount was proposed by COMRA in 2018 and accredited by the Xi Jinping regime. Four options have been proposed by COMRA particularly Daxi Hill, Duanqiao Hill, Fengyan Seamount, Wangdayuan Seamount in 2017 and accredited by Beijing.

Three options (Liezu Seamount, Wanwu Ridge and Yuqing Seamount) have been proposed by COMRA in 2016 and one (Yang’e Rudge) in 2015. All these sea options have been named on the premise of surveys completed by Chinese analysis vessels, as an example the Bangu Knoll was found by Chinese vessel Chen Jingrun Hao in 2019 and proposed in 2021. There was ocean-bed surveillance completed by vessels like 877 Hao, Zhu Kezhen Hao, Li Singuang Hao, Qianglong Erhao and a few others as per the annexures reviewed by the Hindustan Times.

According to a nationwide safety planner and a former Indian international secretary who served in China, the renaming of geographical entities in Indian Arunachal Pradesh is to indicate that the world is disputed by Beijing as Zhangnan or South Tibet however the naming of options within the Indian Ocean is to mission dominance within the Indo-Pacific. The reality is that earlier than staking an illegal declare over the complete South China Sea, China began renaming islands; the atoll Woody Island was renamed as Sansha City.

New Delhi and its buddies have famous these occasions with concern and a solution to the Middle Kingdom’s imperial mentality is predicted quickly, Indian officers mentioned.