The world is passing through turbulent times. Countries around the world are held captive by a rampaging bully at their doorstep. It appears as if the civilizational clock has been set back to that time of history again, when stone-age norms of savagery and display of brute power ruled the roost.

No other country has seen so much modernisation, rapid industrialisation, build-up of military might and unmatched technological prowess as China has. The ambition to attain superpower status in a hurry is hardly a secret. Its foreign policy is bold and ambitious, predicated on surprising the world with unpredictability.

On display here is an unadulterated ambition to lord over the world affairs by all means possible. No holding back of punches, no dithering and no excuse are the way to go. Diplomatic niceties are held in contempt. Friendly countries, if there are any, are only for convenience. Principles of friendship are not based upon mutual trust, equality and common interests. China writes the rules of the game and countries desirous of friendship with it must unquestioningly accept it. More a kind of owner client relationship that is being passed off as friendship.

The seeds of creating client states have been sown long ago. They have grown into large trees now. No part of the world is left untouched by the spurious economic footprints of China. From countries in our neighbourhood to south african nations to central Asia and south central Asia, so many have been taken in by the lure of massive investments of Chinese money. China is no fool. It has chosen its clients quite diligently. It has sought out impoverished but resource-rich countries, ruled mostly by corrupt dictators. It’s then by systematic process of large-scale investment that the client states are buried deep in debt trap. The power to do, as it pleases, with land and resource-rich mines of client states is now vested on Chinese.

Pakistan has gone too far from being a client state to being a slave to China. Nepal is following the illustrious footprints of Pakistan. Sri Lanka has turned cautious now, albeit lately realising how much debt they have come under.

China has piled up massive foreign exchange reserve over decades of monopolising world commerce. Free trade policy has been an alibi for China to dump its products everywhere so as to make all countries dependent on it for all kinds of goods.

The massive pile of cash is being poured back into large-scale infrastructure investments all around the world. Ports, railways, airports, roads and economic corridors are being built on a massive scale in client countries. Ironically, the infrastructures it is putting up in these countries are so designed and carefully selected for their geographical location as to come handy for Chinese themselves in encircling its enemies.

China wants to dominate and encircle every power in the neighbourhood and beyond. It wants lands and more of it. So, it goes on to usurp lands of its neighbourhood. It is locked up in a long dispute with India across squre miles of land at LOC. It has illegally occupied thousand square miles of our land. Tibbet has been forcibly taken over. It has disputes with Vietnam, Japan, Australia and many other countries over south china sea. An island has been turned into a huge infrastructural setup of landing strips for military planes, docking facility for warships to prevent cargo movements of other countries.

They have unleashed a killer virus, Covid-19, on the world. The human toll it has taken so far is unprecedented in any history of war or spread of viral diseases. It kept the news of outbreak of virus under wraps for months till it spread far and wide across the world. It remains unrepentant as ever and worse still, is engaged in bullying India and others over one dispute or the other.

Time for the world to call out the bully. It must be made to pay for its misdemeanor. A country that violates all international protocols shouldn’t be a part of an elite permanent security council membership with veto power. It can no longer be allowed to be a part of WHO which has been misled by it or been co-opted by it into misleading the world. India has shown the way by taking on the bully at LOC. All others must join in to put them in their place.

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