International Relations This Week: Episode 99

International relations is a very important segment of the UPSC syllabus. In this series, we present an analysis of the most important international issues and developments that occurred over the past week relevant for the IAS exam. In this article, you can learn more about Japan’s Defence Policy Reform, AIIMS cyber attack and link with China and other important developments.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Japan’s Defence Policy Reform
2. AIIMS Cyberattack & its China link
3. US Govt’s EAGLE Act
4. US to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine

1. Japan’s Defence Policy Reform

Context: Japan approved a major defence policy overhaul on December 16, 2022.

Introduction: 

• Japan approved a new national security strategy, including a significant spending hike – one of the country’s largest defence overhauls since World War II.
• This includes a strategic shift in its military ideology & approach.
• The Japanese Cabinet approved three documents which outlined the strategy shift — the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Defense Program Guidelines, and the Mid-Term Defense Program.
• Japan vowed to increase security spending to 2% of GDP by 2027, reshape its military command, and acquire new missiles that can strike far-flung enemy launch sites.
• Increased defence spending will bring Japan in line with NATO member guidelines.
• The new measures include provisions that would enable Japan to possess “counter strike capabilities,” the ability to directly attack another country’s territory in the event of an emergency and under specific circumstances.
• To better coordinate its air, sea and land forces, Japan will establish its first joint command centre under the policy.

Significance:

• This is a marked shift from the country’s pacifist approach, which has dominated its political discourse for decades.
  • Japan, under its Constitution, maintains the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) as an armed organisation, holding its exclusively defence-oriented policy as its basic strategy of defence, and continues to keep it equipped and ready for operations.
• Under Japan’s post-war Constitution, the country is not allowed to have offensive military forces. 
• Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution says “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”
  • Japan’s Cabinet adopted a resolution on July 1, 2014, that allows Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) to take action in support of an ally that has come under enemy attack (collective self-defence). 
  • The resolution changed the government’s long-standing position that article 9 of the Constitution of Japan (1946) prohibited the country from engaging in collective self-defence.
• This is done to counter threats from China and a heavily armed North Korea. 
  • Japan describes China as “the greatest strategic challenge ever to securing the peace and stability of Japan”, as well as a “serious concern” for Japan and the international community.
  • Under the new strategy, the country will increase its military presence in its southernmost islands to counter Beijing’s threats.
• Based on current budgets, this policy change will make the country the world’s third-biggest military spender after the United States and China.

Threats for Japan:

From China

• China has been a long-time rival of Japan and has been growing its naval and air forces in areas near Japan while claiming the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited Japanese-controlled chain in the East China Sea, as its sovereign territory.
• Chinese ships have been making frequent forays near the islands, which it calls the Diaoyus, while Japan scrambles warplanes almost daily in response to Chinese planes nearing its airspace.
• China has also been upping its military pressure on Taiwan, the self-ruled island whose security Japanese leaders have said is vital to the security of Japan itself. 
• In August 2022, Beijing fired five missiles that landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone near Taiwan in response to the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei.

From North Korea

• North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear-tipped missiles is a major security concern for Japan, which sits in their range together with South Korea and the mainland U.S. 
• In October 2022, North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan, forcing Tokyo to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.
• North Korea threatened to take “bold and decisive military steps” against Japan opposing its adoption of a national security strategy as an attempt to turn the country into an aggressive military power.

From Russia

• Japan, which once sought enhanced ties and cooperation with Russia, now warns Moscow of its military posture in Asia and calls its proximity to China – “a strong security concern.”
• China and Russia have increased their joint operations and exercises involving their warships and military aircraft around Japan.
• The Kuril Islands situated between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean are under dispute as both Russia and Japan claim sovereignty over them.
• Japan joined the G7 in imposing sanctions on Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia labelled Japan an “unfriendly” country and increased military activity near Japan.
• Japan has been a driving force in promoting the Quad arrangement with Australia, the US and India, with new initiatives in maritime domain awareness, climate change, disaster relief, cyberspace and infrastructure announced.

2. AIIMS Cyberattack & its China link

Context: The e-services at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were affected by a suspected ransomware attack.

Introduction:

• AIIMS has a Local Area Network (LAN) which consists of over 6,500 computers and supports the institute, hospital, centres and other departments.
• Due to the cyber attacks, most of the servers stopped working and also the eHospital network which is managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• The ransomware attack crippled operations and compromised the personal health data of millions of patients including VVIP patients.
• The Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) have initiated investigations and due to the pending sanitisation of the LAN and its nodes, all the critical hospital services are at present being executed manually. 
• Unofficial reports suggest that cyber criminals have demanded about ₹200 crores in cryptocurrency as ransom.

China link:

• The probe into the cyberattack by CERT-In has found that the IP addresses of two emails, which were identified from the headers of files that were encrypted by the hackers, originated from Hong Kong and China’s Henan province.
  • But as of now, they have been able to establish the first layer and are trying to find out about further layers. 
• The targeted servers were infected with three ransomware: Wammacry, Mimikatz and Trojan. 
• The probe has tracked a server address in China but has still not located the person, organisation and exact physical location linked to the cyberattack.
• The Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit have asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to get details from Interpol about the IP addresses of emails from China and Hong Kong in connection with the attacks.

Cyber Security threats to India from China:

• Cyber is often touted as the fifth dimension of warfare in addition to land, sea, air and space. It increasingly appears that cyber warfare is going to become a regular part of the arsenal of nations.
• Cyberspace has been formally designated by many nations in their respective military doctrines as the fifth dimension of warfare.
• Information Warfare is a key ingredient in China’s commercial and military strategy formulation. 
  • The Chinese IW strategy known as ‘Integrated Network Electronic Warfare (EINW)’, comprises various elements of electronic warfare and network-centric warfare techniques to deter and disrupt the capabilities of the enemy by targeting their information system and collecting sensitive information through cyber espionage. 
• India witnessed over 18 million cyber attacks and threats, at an average of nearly 200,000 threats every day, in the first three months of 2022, according to US-based cyber security firm, Norton. 
• Over the years, India has been witnessing a growth in cyber-attacks reportedly by China-sponsored hackers, targeting both the government and the public domain in India. 
• There are reports of the deployment of malware by Chinese state-sponsored actors into Indian power grids and seaports as border tensions between India and China began escalating in 2020.

Alleged Chinese Cyberattacks on India’s Critical Information Infrastructure:

• Operation Shady RAT & Operation GhostNet (2006-2011) 
  • In 2009, Chinese hackers based in Hainan Island are known to have exploited a system called Ghostnet to steal the files from the information networks of the Tibetan Government in exile.
• 2010 Commonwealth Games 
  • Six cyber networks of the Delhi Commonwealth Games faced at least 1,000 potential attacks in the 12 days of the event.
  • Roughly three-fourths of these attempts to breach and paralyse the Games networks originated from China.
• October 2020: Mumbai Power Outage 
  • The power outage in Mumbai in 2020 is also suspected to be the result of an attack by a Chinese state-sponsored group.
• March 2021: Vaccine manufacturing units 
  • A Singapore-based cyber intelligence firm has reportedly found that Chinese hackers targeted databases of Indian Covid vaccine makers, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech in 2021.
• July 2021: UIDAI Database 
  • Chinese state-sponsored hackers are believed to have infiltrated and stolen data from the Indian government agency responsible for a national identification database in 2021.
• April 2022: Ladakh Power Grid
  • Several reports claimed that Chinese hackers focused on at least seven State Load Despatch Centres (SLDCs) in northern India that are responsible for carrying out real-time operations for grid control and electricity dispatch in the areas they are located in, near the disputed India-China border in Ladakh. The cyber-attacks took place between August 2021 and March 2022.

3. EAGLE Act

Context: Recently, the White House supported the US Congress pass legislation whose aim is to eliminate the per-country quota on issuing green cards and the House of Representatives will soon vote on the EAGLE Act of 2022.

Key Details:

• The US House of Representatives will soon vote on the (Equal Access to Green Card for Legal Employment) EAGLE Act of 2022.
• The goal of the EAGLE Act is to allow US employers to “focus on hiring immigrants based on merit, not their birthplace, by eliminating the “per country” limitation on employment-based immigrant visas (green cards).” 
• There are 1,40,000 employment‐based green cards available, and because of the per-country cap, the backlog has touched millions.
• To reduce the impact of this on less-populated countries and ensure that eligible immigrants from these countries are not excluded when the Act is implemented, the legislation plans to phase out the per-country caps over the course of nine years.
• Another goal of the EAGLE Act 2022 is to improve the H-1B specialty occupation visa program.
  • This would be done by bolstering the recruitment requirements, strengthening protections for US workers and boosting transparency, among others.
• A 2022 report highlights that nearly all backlogged immigrants are from India. 
  • According to the report, 75% of the employment‐based backlog was made up of skilled Indian workers.
• Several Americans believe that this would encourage more foreigners to come to the US for residency.
  • This would lead to low-wage and low-skilled workers getting Green Cards.

Green card and its benefits:

• Officially known as a Permanent Resident Card, a green card, issued to immigrants, allows them to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis. 
• The card serves as evidence that the holder has been accorded the privilege of residing permanently. 
• Some of the benefits of having a green card are – 
  • It provides a pathway to citizenship, a green card holder can sponsor immediate family members for the same card. 
  • It provides easy access to the US social security system as also education assistance, travel to and from the country becomes much easier, and a cardholder can choose to live anywhere in the US. 
  • There is more freedom in terms of career opportunities as one can apply for a wide variety of jobs, and a cardholder can also have some amount of engagement in the political process of the country.

Read more on the Differences between the US Green Card and Citizenship.

4. Patriot Missiles

Context: The U.S. is finalising plans to send Patriot missile batteries that can shoot down incoming missiles to Ukraine.

Key Details:

• Patriot (MIM-104) is a surface-to-air, long-range, all-altitude, all-weather air-guided missile system that was first deployed in the 1980s to counter tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and advanced aircraft. 
• It is produced by Raytheon in Massachusetts and Lockheed Martin Missiles.
• The U.S. Army describes the Patriot, which consists of multiple parts including a radar, a control station and up to eight launchers as its “most advanced air defence system.”
  • These missiles were used by the US military in the Persian Gulf War, the Iraq war, the 2014 Israel – Gaza conflict, the Syrian civil war, Yemen civil war, the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, Saudi Arabian – Yemeni border conflict.
• Each Patriot battery consists of a truck-mounted launching system with eight launchers that can hold up to four missile interceptors each, a ground radar, a control station and a generator. 
• Patriot missile systems have long been a hot ticket item for the US and allies in contested areas of the world as a coveted shield against incoming missiles.
• Patriot is in service with the US and allied countries including Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Poland, Sweden, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Romania, Spain, and Taiwan.
• A key hurdle will be training. U.S. troops will have to train Ukrainian forces on how to use and maintain the system.
• There were also concerns that deployment of the system would provoke Russia, or risk that a missile fired could end up hitting inside Russia, which could further escalate the conflict.

Read more International Relations This Week articles in the link.

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