India must apologize for drone intrusion
According to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s Western Theater, an Indian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) recently intruded into China’s airspace and crashed. This is another blatant infringement of China’s territorial sovereignty since this summer’s Doklam standoff and has raised tensions in the border areas. Given the current delicate bilateral relationship, India’s unscrupulousness is surprising.
Apparently, New Delhi hasn’t learned from the Doklam face-off. Some Indians may truly believe that their country has prevailed over China in the crisis, and can thus be more willful on the Sino-Indian border. Indian media outlets are known to hype nationalistic sentiment, creating an illusion that New Delhi is strategically unparalleled and can overwhelm Beijing at will.
Does the Indian military understand the seriousness of its intrusion into Chinese territory and the security risks of doing so? Does the Indian military really believe India is a country that China should stand in awe of and that Beijing has to submit to its infringements? Who decided to take provocative actions against China? These decision-makers are rash fellows, ignorant of international politics. Their impudence doesn’t conform to international rules and protocols.
New Delhi should wake up from its arrogance. India’s GDP and military budget is insufficient to provoke China directly or even intrude into Chinese territory covertly.
Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the US, Japan, Australia and India may have instigated New Delhi. But it would be desperately stupid if India takes others’ strategic calls as a form of strength that it can use.
Don’t Indian decision-makers have the wisdom or rationality to handle international relations and so must be taught a lesson on how to interact with major global powers such as China? It’s worrying that provocations by arrogant New Delhi may eventually lead to serious Sino-Indian military conflicts.
The Indian military argued that the drone intruded into China’s airspace due to a technical malfunction.
This explanation convinces no one. India’s failed reconnaissance reflects both the country’s poor morality and technology.
The Chinese military needs to deploy more forces on the Sino-Indian border to prevent the Indian army from any further intrusion. The border areas will see climbing security costs, which China is more capable of bearing than India.
We warn the Indian military that our PLA will strike any UAV down without hesitation if such a provocation occurs again.
The huge gap in comprehensive strength favoring Beijing suggests that China has full strategic say and initiative to teach the Indian military a lesson.
We demand India issue a public apology for its UAV intrusion. It will be a step in the right direction if the country shows the ability to wake up and avoid future provocations.