China accusing Japan of remilitarisation to hide its own vicious neo-colonial ambitions: Report 

Beijing, Nov 8 (IANS) China has been falsely accusing Japan of remilitarisation to hide its own vicious neo-colonial ambitions, a report said.

China has recently opened military facility at Ban Keun in Laos, showcasing it as a modest training and logistics centre. However, it is another calculated step in China's step to normalise its military presence in mainland Southeast Asia.

Located near Vientiane, Chinese military facility formally described as the the China-Laos Joint Support and Training Centre, along with the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy, has been set up to provide training to Laotian Air Force pilots and being a logistics hub for Chinese defence cooperation, according to a report in Japan Forward.

China has claimed that the facility is not directed against any third nation.

However, China's assurance sparks scepticism as Beijing as repeatedly used terms like training, development, friendship, connectivity and joint operation to conduct strategic expansion.

China's military facility in Laos follows similar pattern as it is not yet a large operational base but intends to create durable access, involve Chinese personnel and systems in other nations and prepared the ground for using it for military purpose in future, according to Pema Gyalpo's report in Japan Forward.

China does not call Ban Keun a base as the word base means foreign military control, permanent deployment, and a direct challenge to regional sovereignty. A joint support and training centre appears to sound creative and technical.

"Yet the distinction is largely rhetorical. The facility is China's first publicly acknowledged overseas military facility centered on airpower, and it gives the People's Liberation Army a foothold in a strategically sensitive part of Southeast Asia. The site can support rotating Chinese forces, sustain logistics, train pilots on Chinese equipment, and potentially host surveillance and intelligence capabilities over time," Pema Gyalpo said in a report in Japan Forward.

According to analysts, China's military facility in Laos could in future end up accommodating surveillance radars, spy aircraft and signals intelligence system. Even if the deployments have not been announced yet, the Chinese infrastructure in Laos creates that option, according to the report in Japan Forward.

China's military presence in other nations often begin small, ambigious and seem harmless. The Ream facility in Cambodia was also described in the language of renovation and cooperation. Ban Keun may follow the same pattern. The most important concern of China's military presence overseas is the erosion of ASEAN's strategic balance as Southeast Asian nations have long tried to avoid becoming instruments of great-power rivalry.

--IANS

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