Rattled China Now Avoiding Direct Action, Using Pakistan To Irritate India
China has been backing India’s perennial irritant —Pakistan—for long. Now it has started doing this from behind the scenes, while not coming in direct conflict with New Delhi. Pakistan has been trying to scuttle India’s UNSC membership, raising the Kashmir issue at international fora, including the last UNGA in September and even raising the issue of Article 370 covertly only because of backing by China. Now the list of deceit and diplomatic breach on Beijing’s part is becoming longer and unending.
But since last week, rattled at being cornered from all sides in the Indo-Pacific and in its own den in the South China Sea region, coupled by its “ defeat” in the border clash with India in Galwan Valley in June and now with even the US threatening to strike, China is feeling threatened.
So China has once again begun to “disturb and destabilise” India by using an embattled and beleaguered Pakistan as its pawn. It is trying the same thing with Nepal recently using it against India.
In fact having woken upto the new reality, India is getting prepared to fight a two-front war, if that becomes a reality—one against China on the eastern front and the other against Pakistan on the western front.
Diplomacy and strategic affairs experts in Washington DC think tanks strongly feel that India’s surge is a cause of “genuine worry” for the China-Pakistan combo.
New Delhi has friends and strategic allies, while it is also strengtheqwqning its ties with Japan and Australia and of course USA, to keep the Dragon in check. However these ties are to be on basis of equality only.
A new strategic war game is on the cards, prompting India to play its game perfectly.
China’s policy towards any country that it views as a potential peer competitor like India and Japan, is to encourage their immediate neighbours—with whom that country has tensions/conflict—and to encourage that tension.”
Well India too can and has started reciprocating in the same manner. We are fully backing Vietnam in all its endeavors and even ready to supply BRAHMOS missiles and other weapons. Similarly relationship has been built up with Philippines and Indonesia.
China keeps trying its card also with Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Its high time, India reciprocates with closer ties with Taiwan and the Tibetan Government in Exile. It should also be more vocal on plight of Quighers in Xinxiang.
China knows that India sits astride nearly 80% of the International Sea Lanes —much of which are crucial to Beijing’s energy and oil supply chains, passing through the Indian Ocean Region. India along with the ASEAN countries can make trading very difficult for Chins. With its Act East policy India along with the Quad can completely choke the Jugular vein of the Chinese Dragon or rather severe it in one stroke.
Thus for China, Pakistan is important not just against India, But It also provides China access to the Muslim world, the Persian Gulf, and one of the ways to avoid the Malacca Strait dilemma.
The recent tiff between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia shows that slowly Pakistan has painted itself into a corner.It is helping China and still paying a heavy price—multi-billion investments in CPEC projects while Islamabad’s own coffers are running empty. Even China’s infrastructure related investments in Pakistan are primarily to provide access to Chinese goods to the Gulf and the Middle East.
