Foreign Policy: China's neighbors are militarily stronger than we think and are working to enhance their capabilities

The American Foreign Policy magazine said that the staggering rise in the size of China's military spending has pushed the neighbors of this Asian country in the Indian and Pacific Oceans to enhance their military capabilities, as Beijing is now facing military competitors from all sides, after it had the supreme word. Within two decades of any regional conflict in the region.

In a report by international policy editor Salvatore Paponis, the magazine stated that China has become the "main threat" to the countries of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as its military spending is now 6 times higher than it was at the beginning of the millennium, and thus moved from sixth to second place globally, according to statistics Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is a specialist in defense and armaments.

She said that the countries of the region - or what she called the "Indian and Pacific arc" - from India in the southwest to Japan in the northeast, will constitute an effective bulwark against Chinese expansion, even in the absence of overt support and encouragement from the United States.

The Japanese armed forces have a good reputation for readiness and technological capabilities, and - in the face of the Chinese aircraft carrier building program - they have converted two helicopter carriers it owns into fixed-wing aircraft carriers.

Although Japanese carriers will be much smaller than their Chinese counterparts, their ability to launch fifth-generation stealth fighters of the F-35 (F-35) will make the difference in the event of any armed conflict, while the Shenyang J-15 fighters (Shenyang J-15) of the Navy in the Chinese army is of the fourth generation and considered less advanced, and it has faced serious technical problems.

As for India, at the other end of the "arc of the two oceans", despite the tremendous military modernization that China has witnessed, it is likely that it now has the upper hand on the borders of the two countries in the Himalayas.

The development of Chinese infrastructure has been kept pace with the construction of mountain tunnels and all-weather roads by the Indian army, and this network of tunnels has allowed for a significant increase in the ability of Indian forces to transfer heavy equipment from the rear bases to the line of effective control at the border. The vast Indian army in fighting on glaciers, the acumen of its special forces on the borders and its superiority in the war of the heights.

Air superiority

In view of India’s endeavors to acquire the best French Rafale fighters, the possible modernization of its Russian Sukhoi Su-30 squadrons, and the imminent delivery of advanced Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems, ), And also the Tejas multi-role fighters that have been developed domestically, the Indian Air Force may soon have absolute air superiority over the effective control line on the border between the two countries.

On the other hand, Vietnam - which, like India, was once a victim of a Chinese surprise attack, focused its defense investments despite its relative modesty on coastal defense strategy, and invested heavily in anti-ship missiles.

It is also rumored that the Vietnamese army is about to acquire Indian-made Russian BrahMos missiles, which are faster than the speed of sound.

Consequently, as China advances in its efforts to impose its presence in the South China Sea, Vietnam is working in parallel to develop its own capabilities in order to deny the Chinese People's Liberation Army the ability to operate freely in the region.

The magazine stresses that despite this steady development in the capabilities of Japan, India, and Vietnam to a lesser extent, the "arc of the Indian and Pacific oceans" has weaknesses, which are the island states, such as the Philippines and Taiwan, while other countries - such as South Korea are more concerned with the threat coming from Its northern neighbor - to contribute to consolidating this arc against Chinese influence, especially as it is a close ally of Washington and has taken a decision to equip an aircraft carrier that it plans to build with American F-35 aircraft, and homemade electronic warfare equipment.