FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
This week Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Israel on a historic visit but the headlines were stolen by a neighbour India has recently had a fraught relationship with. Using its signature move of encroaching by building infrastructure, a more assertive China has been advancing its claims of late over several disputed territories, most notably in the contested South China Sea where Beijing is building islands. The latest episode of this reimagining of the world came to light on June 16 when the People’s Liberation Army’s road construction entered Doklam, a narrow plateau that abuts the trijunction where India, China and Bhutan meet. The dispute over the land between China and Bhutan is not just about the size of the 89 sq. km territory in Doklam: it is a plateau of immense strategic significance as it brings China even closer to the vulnerable 27-kilometre-long Siliguri corridor or ‘chicken’s neck’ that links the northeastern states to the rest of India.
Bhutan, which now finds itself at the centre of the stand-off between the two Asian giants, has always relied on India for support against any aggressive designs by China. Bhutan and India share close defence ties and a friendship treaty, while Thimphu does not have diplomatic ties with Beijing.
The current dispute comes at an interesting moment, and appears to be triggered by various things, not the least of which was Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with US President Donald Trump. There is a chill in US-China relations right now over China’s failure to help in ending North Korea’s nuclear threat. Beijing is unhappy with the US sailing its warships in the South China Sea and agreeing to a $1.4 billion arms deal with Taiwan. China’s biggest nightmare is a concert of democracies—US, Japan and India—whose aim would be to contain Chinese influence. Beijing will no doubt get a visible symbol of this growing trilateral cooperation in the annual ‘Malabar 2017’ naval exercises beginning in the Bay of Bengal on July 10.
Clearly, a reworking of the global order is on the anvil. China and Russia are reinforcing their ties, which Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in Moscow on July 3 were now enjoying their best time in history. China is rapidly expanding its influence as it looks to reshape the world order through its massive ‘Belt and Road’ infrastructure plan, as we detailed in our June 5, 2017, cover story (The World According to Xi).
This week, our cover story examines the Doklam flashpoint in the context of China’s larger ambition of becoming a superpower and India’s place in this quick-changing world. Relations between India and China have always been a complex mix of cooperation and competition, but now appear to be veering towards discord, overturning more than a decade of negotiations between special representatives of the two nations. India is now dealing with a fundamentally different China. “The shrill rhetoric from Beijing aimed at India over what they call trespassing is quite unprecedented. Nationalist sentiment is being whipped up by the media. We’ve seen this before for Japan, but never for India,” says Ananth Krishnan, Associate Editor in Beijing and one of the authors of our story. In additional reporting, Managing Editor Kai Friese analyses the colonial geopolitics that has shaped the Himalayan borders and the ironies of China’s new Great Game.
India is deeply concerned because it sees it as an attempt by China to undo the progress the two sides had made in the past decade for a border settlement. Now, it has to deal with an even more muscular China. The China challenge is becoming the biggest foreign policy test for the Narendra Modi government. How it emerges from it will be critical for India.