China, Sisci: “Hypersonic missile? A demonstration act”

A “demonstration act” by Xi Jinping’s China. Of his dream of military power. Francesco Sisci, sinologist, professor of geopolitics at Luiss, comments with Adnkronos on the revelations of the Financial Times according to which China successfully tested a hypersonic missile with nuclear capability in August. Sisci highlights the “two sides of the problem”: on a “tactical-strategic level – he says – this missile is not a challenge because it is old technology, nothing extraordinarily new, a technology that has not been used for nuclear ballistic missiles because difficult to aim “, but” on the other hand “the launch itself” irritates the Americans as a demonstrative act that shakes the waters and therefore a gesture of defiance “. And it is, according to the sinologist, “a demonstrative act probably for the internal public” of an Asian giant in which “there is perhaps a climate of anxiety for both internal and external issues”. On the domestic front, he recalls, “the rise in the price of raw materials, the rise in gas and oil, the real estate bubble”. And, he insists, “the fact that while the developed world is reopening because vaccinations work, China remains closed.” Externally, Taiwan, which Xi has repeated that it wants to “reunite”, North Korea, China’s ambitions in the South China Sea and also the “Indian question”, the one that for Sisci is “perhaps the most delicate”. That is, “two demographic superpowers, armed to the teeth, who have broken the negotiations” on the territorial dispute. A boiling dispute. “It seems that the Chinese have a non-trivial tactical advantage”, observes the expert, with a reference to “heavy artillery, missiles” and “above all” to “a logistic system that connects that border area” between China and India “with the industrial heart of the country “. While, he concludes, “it seems that the Indians are less armed, that they do not have the same logistical system behind them”.