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India should take notice of the FBI-MI5 warning on China.

India should take notice of the FBI-MI5 warning on China. It is unusual for the heads of the US and UK security services to hold a joint press conference to discuss the threat posed by China’s rise. What is remarkable is that on Wednesday, the heads of the US FBI and the UK’s MI-5 warned the world about China’s concerted efforts to steal western technology and sway policy through lobbying and financial influence.

Even though Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to become the country’s permanent leader after winning the third five-year term at a Chinese party conclave later this year, the press conference, as the US-influenced media refers to it, should serve as a wake-up call for the Narendra Modi administration and India. The Chinese autocrat will disregard all retirement books in an effort to consolidate his political position, but he will follow the same guidelines and practices to ensure that the Central Military Commission and Foreign Policy are infused with new blood. After all, Xi is the brand-new ruler of a China that is booming and powerful.

The fact that none of the Muslim nations, including the OIC and religious agitator Pakistan, have the guts to challenge Beijing over grave human rights abuses in the Sunni-dominated Xinjiang area is also a sign of Chinese hegemony.

As a real legatee of the Raj, the Indian bureaucrat is doing a “please speak” to his or her junior on every file to safeguard his or her turf, in contrast to the Chinese wolf warrior diplomats and bureaucrats who work in harmony with the needs of national growth and power projection. The rapid pace at which China is erecting massive military infrastructure all along the 3488 km Line of Actual Control (LAC) is causing concern among everyone in national security and the military, but files pertaining to important infrastructure projects are still bogged down in inter-ministry disputes. And while all of this is going on, PM Modi, a workaholic, has given every military infrastructure project the go-ahead from the beginning.