China Starts Flexing Its Muscles Again
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2020-05-25 18:30:43
About the Author
What is China is trying to do at the Line of Actual Control (LAC)? Both in Sikkim and eastern Ladakh, Indian and Chinese troops measured up against each other. The Chinese army has sent more than 1200 troops inside Indian-held territory in Galwan Valley. These soldiers are pitching tents and building bunkers which hints that they are in for a long haul. Following this, India has also sent additional troops to the forward areas. The situation has become particularly tense there.
Although India has inaugurated a new road that goes up to the Lipulekh Pass on the border with China, but that by itself cannot be the reason for the confrontationist posture adopted by China. Both countries have regularly ramped up the infrastructure leading up to the international border or the LAC without major conflagrations in the past. Doklam was an exception as the Chinese troops had then ventured deep inside a region that is disputed territory, as both India and Bhutan have laid claims on it, with construction equipment in a bid to extend a road. The present road by India at Lipulekh Pass was built completely in undisputed Indian territory.
The reasons for the aggressiveness shown by China (troops across the border indulged in an eyeball confrontation that could have escalated) is quite clear. China has used the disruption caused all over the world by the pandemic to impose a new national security law in Hong Kong which all but annexes the island by withdrawing all forms of the autonomy granted to it. This is despite the fact that China knows any such move will lead to an exodus of the brightest talent that has made Hong Kong the financial powerhouse it is and could also lead to sanctions by the West, led by the US.
Elsewhere, China has started its policy of projecting itself as the dominant player in every field by trying to scuttle Taiwan's participation at the WHO and by imposing import bans on Australian products after the country suggested that the origins of Covid-19 should be probed thoroughly. It is putting pressure on India because the country supports Taiwan's entry into the WHO and also wants India to rescind its recent order closing the automatic investment route for Chinese firms. The pique against India for not supporting the belt and road initiative is still there.
In short, China wants India to accede to a regional order that is dominated and dictated by it. Despite opposing most Indian initiatives, helping Pakistan by blocking efforts to declare terrorist hiding in that country as global terrorists and creating differences between India and its neighbours (the latest being the tiff with Nepal which could not have escalated without tacit Chinese backing), China wants India to support it. India must thwart these attempts. It also has to use all channels to recapture lost ground in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Maldives and Mauritius and foil the Chinese efforts to isolate it.
Pic courtesy: sputnik news
