US General Flags China’s ‘Alarming’ Build-Up In Area Bordering India

New Delhi: The US once again raised concerns about China’s behaviour in the LAC area bordering India.

Gen. Charles A Flynn, Commanding General of United States Army Pacific, described China’s behaviour as “insidious” and “destablising”, and said that its infrastructure development along Western Theatre Command, which is responsible for the border with India across all sectors, is alarming.

“I believe that the activity level is eye-opening. I think some of the infrastructure that is being created in the Western Theatre Command is alarming… Much like across all of their military arsenal, one has to ask the question: Why?… What are their intentions?” Gen. Flynn told newspersons in Delhi on Wednesday.

He said military and diplomatic talks to resolve the Ladakh standoff between the two countries can be helpful, “but behaviour matters here as well… understanding what they are saying is one thing, but the way they are acting and behaving is concerning, and should be concerning to everyone, and I think it is.”

He accused the Chinese Communist Party and People’s Republic of China of taking actions which take an incremental. insidious and destabilising path.

“The coercive behaviour that they project in the region is simply not helpful,” he remarked.

Flynn reiterated that India is a “close partner” of the US.

“Even though there was an awful lot going on globally, the geostrategic weight of this century exists in this region, and India, geographically, geostrategically, geopolitically sits at the centre of that,” Flynn observed, adding that the US would continue to strengthen relationships in the region, as a counterweight to these destabilising activities.

“Strengthen the network of allies, partners and like-minded countries for the protection of their land, resources, protection for a free and open Indo-Pacific… that is worthy of us working together as a counterweight to some of the coercive and corruptive behaviour of the Chinese,” he said.