ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at past attempts to distinguish between defensive and offensive naval armaments before delving into the plausible strategic motivations behind the Chinese and Indian naval buildups. It examines how the ambiguous “material reality” of naval armaments plays out in the People’s Liberation Army Navy's deployments in the Indian Ocean Region and how the Indian Navy is perceived by Beijing within its immediate Western Pacific within the broader ambit of a multilateral naval coalition involving Japan and the United States. The chapter provides an extensive database compiled by the author detailing both Chinese and Indian naval modernization efforts and patterns of deployments. India’s concerns about China’s Indian Ocean forays revolve around its expanding blue-water naval capabilities, especially submarines, and port access. The chapter argues that war remains a remote prospect, Sino-Indian rivalry at sea—extending from unresolved terrestrial political problems—looks set to persist.