Spotlight on Chinese PLA (Book Review)

Title: China's Military Power: A Net Assessment; Author: Maj Gen G.D. Bakshi (Retd); Publisher: Knowledge World, New Delhi; Pages: 380; Price: Rs.900

China is increasingly exercising the security establishment in India, given its muscle flexing, border incursions, and territorial and maritime claims involving countries that lie in the Indian Ocean.

Gen Bakshi's "China's Military Power: A Net Assessment," launched by Gen Shankar Roychowdhury, former chief of the army staff, is both timely and relevant.

Gen Bakshi does not avoid uncomfortable issues but addresses them squarely in the light of China's past military history. One of them includes the possibility of China attacking India.

The author analyses the wars that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has fought since the Communists seized power in 1949 and its modernization on a colossal scale, particularly after the Gulf War.

The book analyses how India must respond to the Chinese military machine and ambitions. Clearly, the most dangerous portent for India is the exponential growth in the Chinese air power.

The book also throws new light on China's 1962 war against India. More than five decades later, China has changed Asia's balance of power.