Over 10,000 Indians, entities from politics to business, judiciary to media, even crime-accused, tracked by big-data firm linked to Chinese govt. indianexpress.com/article/expres…
The goal of mining data to push what it [Chinese co] calls “hybrid warfare” — using non-military tools to achieve dominance or damage, subvert or influence. These tools include, in its own words, “information pollution, perception management & propaganda.” indianexpress.com/article/expres…
Beijing's mass surveillance of Australia and the world for secrets and scandal. 2.4 million names and profiles are on the database, including more than 35,000 Australians. It collates Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and even TikTok accounts abc.net.au/news/2020-09-1…
Only 10% of the names in the list have been recovered so far. Of the 250,000 records recovered, there are 52,000 Americans, 35,000 Australians, 10,000 Indian, 9,700 British, 5,000 Canadians. So the number of Indians under Chinese surveillance will go up. abc.net.au/news/2020-09-1…
Foreign Sec, Niti Aayog CEO, think tanks, serving & retired diplomats, media, scholars, influencers on the list of China’s data gathering from social media indianexpress.com/article/expres…
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Why India must qualify its NFU to cater to new realities.
Thread 🧵
Ballistic missile strikes on cities have been normalised.
Russia struck Ukrainian population centres.
Iran on Israel.
Pakistan attempted a strike on Delhi in the recent war.
We’re entered a dangerous new era.
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2/ China has thousands of DF-21 missiles with conventional warheads.
It also possesses long-range rocket artillery—all capable of striking all Indian cities in the north like Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow etc
These aren’t nuclear, but they can still kill tens of thousands.
3/ India’s Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system was designed to protect against nuclear attacks—primarily from Pakistan, for Delhi and Mumbai as the prime targets—as Pakistan projected a low nuclear threshold.
1/ Iran appears weak in this war — despite its ballistic missiles flying and causing damage.
Iran was strategically diminished, even before the war began.
2/ Iran had already suffered major setbacks:
🔸 Hamas was devastated in Gaza
🔸 Hezbollah severely degraded in Lebanon
Iran’s regional influence took a body blow before a direct confrontation with Israel, losing its force multipliers.
3/ Israel had clear strategic objectives — and executed them methodically. Degraded Iran’s proxies.
And since the war began, it has hit Iran’s nuclear and military installations. It has eliminated top military and intelligence leadership and Iranian nuclear scientists.
China, as upper riparian to several rivers, is warning India: Don’t deny Pakistan its share under IWT or we’ll do to you, what you are doing to Pakistan. Threatening to "turn off the tap."
This threat came even before India has done anything on the Indus waters.
China has already played its hand — and the irony runs deep.
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China is upper riparian of Indus, Sutlej & Brahmaputra.
But “turning off the tap”? It’s not that simple.
Most of the water in these rivers comes from precipitation within India, not from Tibet, controlled by China.
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Besides, China isn’t just threatening — it’s already been maximising water usage for years.
Without any formal treaty or obligation, it’s been exporting very little and using as much as it wants for its own benefit.
There’s no "on/off" switch — they’ve been squeezing the tap gradually and selfishly.
India-Pakistan conflict in the Information War Overhang
Thread 🧵
While India and Pakistan may not be engaged in full-scale war, information warfare is very real—and Pakistan plays it like a survival tactic and plays it well.
A militarily weaker Pakistan tries to offset battlefield losses with narrative dominance.
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Pakistan is a military-led state—devoid of moral compunctions—with control over media and messaging. This allows them to run coordinated info ops—fast, cohesive, and aggressive.
For them, losing on the ground isn’t the end. Surviving to fight another day is the victory.
They even manage to show themselves as victims rather than the perpetrators.
3/
What do the Pakis say about their defeats in full blown wars?
They didn’t even accept their dead soldiers in the Kargil War.
They have won on the negotiating table, what they lost on the battlefield, by manipulating our leaders.
Why? Because in the narrative space, truth is optional.
This helps them shape perception at home and abroad—even when the facts suggest otherwise.
People criticising India’s Rules of Engagement on Day 1 because we may have incurred losses need to understand the context - Day 1 was not meant to be an all-out war.
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Day 1 was like the Kargil war - strict boundaries - don’t cross the LoC. In #OperationSindoor, our objective was to strike terror targets, and the political directive would’ve been to not target Pak military assets. IAF’s hands were tied - by design and it operated with that.
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Could we have gone for air superiority before striking terror camps? Sure.
But that would’ve been a declaration of war.
And it wouldn’t have been a light strike, like we did on May 10 - it would’ve meant massive, overwhelming force.
A thread 🧵 on potentially a serious shift in the Indian Subcontinent’s nuclear dynamics.
India struck the Nur Khan base, and probably Kirana Hills which is denied by India. Both are linked to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
But these were hit by 1 or possibly 2 missiles, which shows it was a demonstrative strike. It was not meant to destroy, but to signal.
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These were not large-scale decapitative strikes. They were deliberate, precise, and political - designed to show one thing - India can reach your most sacred sites.
And you can’t stop us.
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That message appears to have hit home. Pakistan’s suing for ceasefire may reflect a realisation that their nuclear deterrent, which it has long used as a shield to prevent punishment from India for its terror war, is vulnerable.