Brig Arun Bajpai
Chinese President Xi Jinping, the all powerful leader of China who is not only the head of state but also head of Chinese Communist Party and also heads two military commissions of Chinese Army, came to India on 17 Sep on state visit and left on 19 sep while his soldiers who came gate crashing Indian territory in Chumar Sector of Ladakh just a week before his arrival are still there in eye ball to eye ball confrontation with the Indian army. The harsh truth is that despite India laying out a true full blooded red carpet treatment and Modi all his undisputed charm, least that can be said about this trip is that it was a failure and the fault lies with China.
While the political pundits in India are perplexed as to what was the need for the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to carry out this large scale intrusion at three places in Chumar sector on the eve of their president’s visit to India, casting a shadow on this visit and further enhancing the mistrust of china in India, but then this is how China functions. When Modi pointed out to Xi on very first day of his visit about this intrusion, the Chinese president did say that he is saddened by this happening and an impression did gain ground in India in some quarters that maybe PLA has now gained the muscle and they do not even bother about their head of the states wishes. This however is a total fib. China is not Pakistan, besides nothing happens in China without deliberations.
This incident is repeat of what happened in April 2013, just before the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Le Kiang’s visit to India. At that time Chinese troops came 19 kms deep in the Rocky Nallah area of Eastern Ladakh and stayed put there for full three weeks. They only went back after India agreed to demolish the barracks which Indian Army had made in this sector to provide shelter to their troops from extreme cold weather. Truth of the matter is that they dared India to cancel the visit of their Prime Minister as also not to demolish the bunkers. The underlaying message was for the East Asian countries like Japan, Vietnam and Fillipines that by cosying up to India no purpose will be served in their maritime dispute with China because India is a paper tiger lacking political will.
This time this Good Cop Bad Cop game was repeated by China because in first week of September, during his very successful visit to Japan, Modi had obliquely criticised China’s expansionist tendencies and in this very month during Indian president Mr Pranab Mukharjees visit to Vietnam, India has signed oil exploration deal with Vietnam in South China sea much against the wishes of China. India has also signed defence deal with Vietnam.
Just before the arrival of XI Jinping to India, the Chinese High Commissioner in Mumbai had talked about China investing 100 billion in India. However with India taking this intrusion seriously and Modi pointing this out to XI Jinping on three occasions in this visit as also Indian troops enhancing their strength to 1000 in this recent confrontation and showing the signs of going to any length if provoked, this 100 billion investment vaporised to just 20 billion and that also only in MOUs.The message which Mr Xi Jinping has conveyed to India is that China is no hurry to settle its border dispute with India and that if India does not want these type of intrusions, India must bow to Chinese wishes and stop lending support to East Asian countries and cosying up with Japan.
The policy makers in India must take this latest visit of Chinese president and its contradictions as blessing in disguise. It should be clear to all in India that for China we are not important and that China wants to box us just in south Asia. So it is time we start paying full attention to bring back our economy to 8-9 percent growth rate. At the same time we must go all out with Mr Modi’s latest slogan “Make in India” which will result in our greater industrialisation and creation of more jobs. We must also revamp our formidable military might and in the interim period go all out to join hands with Japan and US including Australia. We should also be prepared for more Chinese incursions like the present one but we should now be following revolving door strategy. If Chinese intrude at one place we intrude at other place on the same Chinese pretext that border is not demarcated. Till we also start plying Good Cop Bad Cop game we will only be at the receiving end. Our political masters must understand that we are also a nuclear power like China and that Himalayan ranges give us tremendous protection and China is not such big threat to us.
(The author is Defence and Strategic Analyst)
Follow our WhatsApp channel