It’s a holistic attempt to look at China afresh, predominantly through an Indian lens rather than toeing the Western narrative. The silver jubilee edition of ‘Asian Defence Review 2026’ brought out by the Centre for Aerospace Power and Strategic Studies (CAPSS) covers a host of topics relating to India’s primary adversary. A range of authors—scholars, former diplomats, ex-military personnel, think tanks et al—has expounded on China’s civilisational history, strategic culture, political system, military modernisation and geopolitical ambitions.
It’s tough to find one expert on China; we wanted to have diverse opinion, AVM Anil Golani (Retd), who has co-edited the book with Group Captain Vivek Naik, told Bharat Shakti Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale.
Golani believes purges in the Chinese military leadership by Xi Jinping can have a bearing on troop morale but whether it will impact combat readiness is tough to assess.
On Taiwan, Golani suggested that China might pursue a gradual takeover rather than an outright military invasion. He also mentioned the possibility of countries including India, the United States, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines coordinating efforts to deter Chinese expansionism.
Captain Sarabjeet Parmar (Retd), a maritime security expert who has contributed to the book, identified South China Sea as a region with multiple potential flashpoints. He highlighted the Second Thomas Shoal and Scarborough Shoal, involving the Philippines, and the Paracel Islands, involving Vietnam, as areas where tensions could escalate.
Parmar also outlined three possible scenarios for Taiwan: continuation of status quo, a limited conflict, and an all-out war. He considered the continuation of the status quo, accompanied by increasing Chinese pressure, the most likely outcome.
Brigadier Iqbal Singh Samyal (Retd), India’s former defence attaché to Beijing and another contributor to the book, highlighted China’s evolving approach to multi-domain integrated joint operations. That involves synchronising land, air, maritime, space, cyber, electronic and cognitive capabilities. The strategy is not to kill but to paralyse the enemy by targeting its nerve centre, he said.
He cautioned India against attempting to match China capability for capability. Instead, he advocated adaptability, agility and asymmetric responses. Samyal also drew an important lesson from Galwan: escalation cannot always be controlled by one side.
India’s China policy must be based on clear-eyed assessments of Chinese capabilities, not assumptions about Beijing’s intentions, the experts said.
