How the US is quietly countering China
In 2022, the United States shared relevant, real-time satellite intelligence with India in order to repel an act of Chinese aggression along the border between the two countries.
Originally reported by US News, it has been revealed that the US military — for the first time ever — shared intelligence with the Indian military that ultimately caused Chinese PLA soldiers to retreat from a border incursion they instigated.
The event, which occurred in June 2022 in the Galwan River Valley, made international headlines. It was not the first time China and India had skirmished in that area, and in previous occasions the melee even resulted in loss of life for both sides.
Some context is important here; the Galwan Valley is part of Ladakh, a section of the greater Kashmir region that is under Indian control. The territory, however, is disputed by India and China. For India, it is a strategically important region for the military. Pictures on Google Maps even suggest that:
For China, the region is historically a gateway for trade across the region. It also borders Tibet, an area China has openly suppressed since the 1950s. And because China wants the land so badly, it has resorted to what are now famously called “Salami Tactics.”
Salami Tactics, broadly, are a divide-and-conquer approach to geopolitics and the military actions that pursue expansionist policy. In China’s case, the trend has been to increasingly ramp up military incursions into sovereign territory, preach defensive rhetoric, engage in plausible deniability, and to use economic policy to encroach on territory. A specific example that has generated international attention is China’s increasing incursions on Taiwan.
These are tactics that, in China’s case, are not short-term. In fact, they occur over years, if not decades. The goal of Salami Tactics is to perpetually “move the goalpost” of international norms to ultimately perform actions that would previously be denounced or even met with force. Taiwan is a perfect example of this. For example, by continually making military incursions into Taiwanese waters, China can achieve three things:
- Gain valuable experience for its military
- Test the adversary response, or willingness to do so
- Further redefine the “norm”
It is point three that is the real benefit of Salami Tactics. In such actions becoming more and more frequent, its alters the international norm of what is acceptable behavior. In a rules-based international order, it makes developing military strategy all the more difficult because the criteria for responding with force is muddied. Eventually, China would like to see the “norm” as its fleet parked in Taiwanese waters and operating a blockade.
Coming full circle, the incursions into Ladakh follow the same strategic ends, just in a different place. By ultimately committing troops to incursions that the world mostly ignores, China can increase its presence and its claims to the region over time.
It is the US Intelligence Community’s involvement that potentially changes all that. By providing that real-time intelligence data, the Indian military were able to lie-in-wait for the Chinese forces, bolster their numbers, and out muscle them. The skirmish, like the ones before it, was a brawl with clubs, tasers, and limbs. While this 2022 clash did not result in a loss in life, it did results in a PLA route back across the border.
The American willingness to share relevant intelligence with its less-than-mainstream partners might be a sign that we are willing to openly oppose China in ways we previously let slide.
Russia has been a master of such tactics, and the 2014 Ukraine Crisis is perhaps the textbook example of Salami Tactics coming to full fruition. It is only the open war in Ukraine that has brought US aid into the fold. And so, it appears that the US has learned its lesson by observing Russia, and is now willing to act proactively against Chinese ambitions.
