It can no longer be business-as-usual
veying to the Chinese that India can live with what its army has done. Therefore, India needs to reinforce and reiterate its military messaging through policy decisions which further underline India’s very clear national consensus not to accept Chinese big brotherly attitudes and plain bullying. It is for this reason that India will have to take measures to indicate that if there is no peace on the border, the rest of the relationship with China will also be negatively impacted. A reassessment and recalibration of India’s China policy are required to make India’s messaging crystal clear.
The first step in this resetting of India’s China policy was the ban on 59 Chinese apps such as Tiktok, Wechat and UC Browser. India is only getting started. Banning Chinese firms on national security grounds from participating in India’s 5G trials and rollout will be a strong indication of New Delhi’s mindset.
One consequence of Chinese actions will be for India to strengthen its partnerships with democracies such as the United States, Japan, France, South Korea and, perhaps, Indonesia. India must also expand its relations with Taiwan. Delhi will have to reassess its China policy with a cool, calm, rational frame of mind. There is no need for knee-jerk reactions. In order to weigh the options which can be on the table, India has to have widespread consultations which must be timebound. The new policy must be implemented within 2020 itself.
Such a reset and recalibration of India’s China policy, particularly in the economic realm, cannot be accomplished without causing some pain to ourselves. When we have decided that a strong message needs to be sent to China, then we must also be ready to bear the pain.
Indian soldiers have done this on our borders; now it is time for ordinary Indians to show that they are willing to do so too. The pain is likely to come in the form of higher consumer prices for certain products; it may come in the form of lower profits for firms; it may also take the form of lower revenues for traders.
We shall have to accept some pain, if we are to convey that we are a strong, united nation which China has made the mistake of riling. India’s strength of character will have to be put on full display to indicate to China that it will not be business as usual.