p.s. There is obviously a friendly affinity between China and Pakistan, their people and especially their militaries. I know this first hand as I lived in China for a year, and people there hold the China-Pakistan friendship in high regard. We've also seen the close relations between the serving officers of both nations when they work with each other on joint-exercises. But that doesn't mean that China's entire regional strategy is determined by Pakistan's concerns. And this move in Ladakh is clearly a long-term strategic maneuver by China. This stuff doesn't happen randomly. A lot of thought and preparation went into this from the Chinese leadership (both political and military) as Sawhney has made very clear.
Thank you. A frank assessment of the realities between India and China as opposed to the incessant trolling here.
Completely agree that this was not a knee jerk reaction to anything India did , including the reorganization of the state into a UT.
As twiddle has pointed out the last serious conflict took place in 2013 when the pacifist Manmohan Singh was in charge of India.
Now we come to the aim behind the action.
India and Pakistan have more or less reconciled to keeping the parts of kashmir under their control. Kargil was the last attempt at redrawing the actual area of control. Some populist statements notwithstanding from both sides for public consumption. But both have not taken any defence related steps in this direction.
But with China their target is a opaque box.
Are they actually after redrawing the LAC ?
Is land grab of arunachal pradesh a serious aim ?
Is ladakh also a serious aim ?
Or are these pressure tactics to keep India away from a western alliance ? Which incidentally failed miserably.
No one knows. Atleast on this site. And i suspect not in China and India, except a small coterie in China.
We dismiss the possibility of large land grabs in the 21st century as non viable but china has built artificial islands 1000s of kms away from its mainland to bolster its claim in the south China sea.
I suspect India is going to be surprised, as usual, by the scale of Chinese ambition to land grab.
Previously i would have blamed xi for the tensions on China's borders but India's experience shows that its just a continuation of old Chinese nibbling, to expand its borders.
The reason Manmohan proposed setting up a mountain corp in 2013 after a large Chinese incursion. It was supposed to have 80k personnel but was never financed and was slashed to 10k at the moment.
This recent incursion was a badly planned repeat of 2013 and just hardened attitudes in India.
China should have occupied ladakh taking advantage of the lightly defended status but instead has just woken India up. A half hearted blunder in my opinion.
Now the mountain corp is being strengthened. India is advancing relations with usa.
Reducing dependency on Chinese imports.
And arming itself at a more rapid pace.