China Should Know That It Cannot Behave Against India Like It Does With USA
Chinese soldiers guard a China-India border crossing at Nathu La Pass.
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces, Veteran
With Wuhan Virus still spreading around the world, the Government of China including its military, have lately been behaving in a strange way towards India. Where as on one hand China is in conflict with the US, on the other hand the Americans are wooing India to join their camp, with a view to teach a proper lesson to China. So the Chinese are not very happy with India and this attitude is extending to the Chinese foreign policy too. This will surely damage the country’s relations with India and hinder its focus on pandemic prevention, as well as the long-term economic recovery.
Many bilateral interactions, including top-level meetings, have been postponed due to the pandemic, bringing instabilities to the existing bilateral relationship, even though China and India had begun improving their mutual trust during recent years. On top of this, recently Chinese troops have begun provoking Indian Army all along the LOC right from Ladhak to Arunachal. Such things may suddenly go out of hand and the 1967 Nathu La type incident may get repeated.
China-US relations are worsening amid the pandemic, while India and the US can be seen to be improving. This has led to a growing speculative attitude among Chinese officials, the country’s media and even the military, that somehow India is responsible for this state of affairs. They also feel that India is trying to exploit the situation.
India has become the automatic choice for foreign investment getting relocated from China, and even the Americans are seeking strong bonds with the India. So naturally India is gathering more bargaining chips in foreign relations with China.
So both in despair and anger, the Chinese military has started acting in the most foolish manner.
The Chinese military has been shoring up its strength in border areas, and since its normal military patrols, troop rotation and deployment might have been affected by the Wuhan epidemic, it has violated the sanctity if LoC several times at several places thus displaying irrational attitude toward border relations.
Though India is dedicated to resolving border issues through talks and hopes for implementation of a management and control mechanism agreed by both sides, so as to cool down tensions and uphold a benign direction of bilateral relations, it also is fully capable of looking after its interests. Thus, if China chooses to irrationally heat up an unfriendly scenario, it will see bad results not only in its pandemic prevention work, but also in terms of economic recovery and lose politically too at the international level.
China is not only upset but getting paranoid with India, as most of the Multi national Companies have started re locating from China to India. Certainly all the American companies are going to move out of China and their destination is going to be India.
Since 2014 India has been promoting “made-in-India” campaign and making efforts to draw foreign investment, so no wonder India is rapidly taking over China’s position in the global industrial chains.
In fact China will now even have competition with Vietnam and other East Asian countries. Besides India itself has initiated massive reform and upgrading, which will make things further tough for the Chinese. From skilled human resources to sufficient infrastructure, and from labor systems to land systems, these issues are being rapidly resolved in India. By contrast, China is facing a massive exodus and its infrastructure including ports, road networks, skilled workers and advanced logistics, which are all critical factors for multinationals’ strict delivery requirements have been paralyzed to a great extent and will take time to recover.
The world is now facing mounting pressure due to COVID-19. What China should do is to seek a cooperative relationship with India and other countries, rather than stirring up a tense atmosphere. As neighbors and two major economies of not only Asia but even the World, it is particularly important for China and India to join hands in various areas including vaccine development, medical material supply and economic resumption, in order to benefit residents in the two countries and also the whole world.
China and USA are having competition for world domination but they do not share any land borders. However China should not forget that because of Occupied Tibet they have presently an unsettled border with India and India too is a emerging World power. Confrontation with India will force the Indian hand to raise various issues pertaining to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet and of course liberation of illegal occupation of Indian territory in Ladhak including Pakistan Occupied Gilgit and Baltistan.
