Salami Slicing
No, we are not talking about sandwiches here; in fact this is something much more sinister; it’s a negotiation technique and it is being applied by China to further its interests in South and East Asia. So let’s analyse what salami slicing is all about:
WHAT?
It’s a negotiation technique where a job is divided into small slices which are accomplished one by one. This is analogous to a whole salami being sliced into small parts and eventually captured.
HOW? (the technique works)
So, a skilled negotiator (we will refer to him as a slicer from now on), will slice his entire objective into small portions, and will attack the other party on multiple fronts demanding small bits, referred to as slices. And, if the other party is unaware they will think, “Oh! it’s only a small demand here and there” but in truth they are losing the entire salami to the slicer. Slowly but steadily as the negotiations continue, the slicer would have extracted the entire salami, leaving the other party red-faced.
Avoiding it?
The important question then: Can it be tackled? Yes, it can be but for that, one needs to be vigilant enough to understand and connect the dots of the multi-pronged attack of the slicer. The moment they start asking for more, the other party should go, “Ok you can have that but I would then have to take back the previous slice (offer) that I agreed to”. What this does is that it throws off the slicer as they can no longer be assured that the slice they negotiated will not be “taken back”.
CHINA Slicing? (Claim, Dispute, Occupy)
Let’s look at how the dragon eats and expands its territories. We will take a close look at the Aksai Chin occupation. Occupied by China after the 1962 Sino-Indian War, Aksai Chin is a high altitude desert spanning an area of 37,000 sq. km.
The area was disputed ever since it was declared part of Kashmir by Johnson, a surveyor with the Survey of India in 1865. It was never presented to China at that time because Xinjiang was not a Chinese province and was under turmoil (the Duncan Revolt). After Chinese objection to the Johnson Line a new line was demarcated called the Macartney-MacDonald line, to which China never raised an objection till 1959. Below is a map attached of the same.
Meanwhile, alongside this, China also disputed the Eastern Border vis-a-vis Arunachal Pradesh, which was decided by the MacMohan Line and both these formed the basis of 1962 war. According to the Chinese, the major objective was to secure its Western Borders (the Salami) but it launched an offensive on both the eastern and western borders (Slices).
Aksai Chin was the Salami as it was strategically important. It offered China a militarily advantageous position to launch an offensive against India and also serve as a route to provide military support to Pakistan.
If we are to analyse how China goes about any territorial occupation it will be seen that it follows these steps everywhere. First it laid a claim to the desert, post which the Macartney-MacDonald line was drawn but that was also disputed and China constructed the Sinkiang-Tibet Road in 1957 which passed through Aksai Chin to further embolden the claim and maintain disputes with respect to the territorial boundaries. And finally the offensive of 1962.
Now, in the aftermath China had occupied Aksai Chin and upto Tezpur in Assam. So, the slice needed was the Aksai Chin area, and everything else was ceded back to India except Aksai Chin which was the main bone of contention even before the war had started. So the salami was with China.
A similar policy has been followed by China while occupying Tibet, Xinjiang, Paracel Archipelago from Vietnam and even Hong Kong in recent times, by subverting and curtailing its freedom.
Lastly, it is of paramount importance to observe how China launches these offensives at a time when other super-powers are engaged elsewhere. The Cuban-Missile Crisis during Aksai Chin, Vietnam Civil war during Paracel Island, and the COViD crisis while trying to enhance control in Hong Kong bear testimonies to these.
Summarising this, it is evident from how China has acted in the matters of borders and disputed areas it clearly shows a well-defined approach of Salami Slicing, attack on multiple fronts and extract the salami piece by piece and also the lead-up to this tactic which is of Claim, Dispute then Conquer.
