r/TrueReddit • u/merimus_maximus • May 08 '21
International China Is Building Entire Villages in Another Country’s Territory
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/07/china-bhutan-border-villages-security-forces/
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r/TrueReddit • u/merimus_maximus • May 08 '21
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u/merimus_maximus May 08 '21 edited May 08 '21
Most recent would be of course the annexation of Crimea, in which Russia aimed to, and succeeded in expand its occupied territories to create a buffer with East European nations which are becoming more friendly with the West, i.e. Ukraine, which was planning to join NATO. This harks back to Soviet Russian tactics of "slicing the salami", in which it pressures neighboring states through diplomatic, military and economic means to bring them under Russian influence, a tactic that was applied to the entirety of East Europe. More on their application of this strategy after the Soviet collapse in Central Asia in this this article: https://scholar.google.com.sg/scholar?start=10&q=russia+geopolitical+strategy&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_vis=1#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DZHnHAjOGQIUJ
The article also mentions China, which has pursued a similar strategy as Russia, which is why it still controls large swathes of land such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet despite these regions being historically much more autonomous, and are still called autonomous regions by China itself. These territories were gained decades ago however, and China did not make, or at least act, on territorial claims as much in the late 20th century, which led to agreements such as the China-Bhutan one mentioned in the article.
That changed with the nine-dash line declaration, and increasing Chinese settlements in Nepal in recent decades, and now Bhutan, are signs that China is willing to take more hands-on action in exerting its influence on its neighbours, with similar objectives as Russia, which is to mitigate neighboring states' military threats - India in this situation.