China stand-off shows risks of getting too close to Trump
BY ALIGNING WITH US, INDIA WITNESSING A MORE AGGRESSIVE CHINA — ANALYST
Indian and Chinese forces are facing off by a glacial lake in the Himalayas that traverses their fluid frontier. The stand-off at 4,270 metres is the most visible theatre of conflict between the world’s two most populous nations, but it’s far from the only source of friction.
Despite the remote location, the military build-up at the undemarcated border at Pangong Tso lake should not be seen in isolation, but set against the backdrop of Beijing’s deteriorating global relations during the coronavirus outbreak.
Tensions are flaring as governments from the US to Europe, Japan and Australia move to cut a dependence on China exposed by the pandemic, and India spies an economic opening that it’s seeking to exploit.
But analysts of India-China relations say Prime Minister Narendra Modi risks stoking tensions with Beijing in siding too closely with Donald Trump at a time when the US president is picking a fight with China.
“India has increasingly been seen as aligning with the US and that can’t benefit India in the long term,” said Phunchok Stobdan, a former Indian diplomat and author of The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas: India and China’s Quest for Strategic Dominance.
Road and bridge project
“The Chinese have a saying: kill the chicken to scare the monkey,” said Stobdan. “That’s why smaller powers like India and Australia, who have aligned with the US, are witnessing a more aggressive China.”
The origins of the stand-off that began May 5 remain unclear. India says it was surprised by China’s deployment of troops at three locations on its border including two in Ladakh, a region of strategic importance nestled between western Tibet and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The government concedes the tensions may have been triggered by completion of a road and bridge in the Galwan sector of Ladakh, part of a border infrastructure programme that Modi’s government says is intended to develop remote areas rather than aimed at any particular country.
Extra troops
India and China are no strangers to animosity, and fought a war in 1962. But that was supposed to be behind them as economic and commercial realities took precedence.
Now both nations are marshalling extra troops and artillery to the Himalayan frontier even as Beijing and New Delhi try to lower the temperature.