China is reportedly considering pursuing military facilities in multiple locations, including in Sri Lanka, as per the latest report by US Intelligence Community.
These facilities are beyond developing its military base in Djibouti and its military facility at Ream Naval Base in Cambodia.
“Beijing will focus on building a fully modernised national defence and military force by 2035 and for the PLA to become a world-class military by 2049.
In the meantime, the CCP hopes to use the PLA to secure what it claims is its sovereign territory, to assert its preeminence in regional affairs, and to project power globally, particularly by being able to deter and counter an intervention by the US in a cross-Strait conflict,” the assessment by the US intelligence said.
However, China lacks recent warfighting experience, which probably would weaken the PLA’s effectiveness and leaders’ willingness to initiate a conflict, it said.
“Xi Jinping’s prioritisation of security and stability for the CCP is undermining China’s ability to solve complex domestic problems,” it added.
“Beijing’s hardline approach to alleged separatism in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet, as well as broader crackdowns on religion and dissent in China, have generated widespread global criticism of China’s human rights abuses and extraterritorial interference,” it added
China is planning to set up a radar base in the jungle near Dondra Bay, about 155 kilometres southeast of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.
The facility will be able to monitor India’s assets in the Indian Ocean, including its Navy, and its strategic installations in the southern and eastern parts of South Asia, like the Kudankulam and Kalpakkam nuclear power plants and their refuelling activities.
Some observers believe Dondra Bay’s radar station could track the movements of Indian warships en route to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
A Chinese radar base in Sri Lanka will also be able to monitor US and UK military assets on Diego Garcia, a British Indian Ocean Territory.
In Sri Lanka, “With the help of its radar, China will be able to spy on the Indian space station in Sriharikota (Andra Pradesh), the missile testing range in Chandipur (Odisha) and several other Indian military bases, “as well as monitor its satellites in space.”
In August,last year the Chinese surveillance vessel Yuan Wang 5 docked for six days at the port of Hambantota for logistical and supply operations, this despite Indian warnings to Sri Lanka. Since then, India has increased its monitoring of Chinese movements in the region.
Several academics note that India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh submitted a 12-page secret report to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi drafted by the Indian naval intelligence about China’s attempt to set up a radar base in Sri Lanka.
According to the document, China is working on a deal with Sri Lanka to lease Dondra Bay for 99 years, as it did for the Port of Hambantota.
