If you analyze the Satellite Images of the recent army build-up near Galwan Valley on the Chinese side, it is very clear that China wants the world to see its military strength and who could be a better opponent than India to show its might! India is an emerging economic giant and a responsible power in this side of the world.
China clearly knows that by moving its military ammunitions near the border, it will get international attention. The intention of China of confronting the Indian Army Jawans at Patrol point 14 was to send a message to other Asian countries, especially the ones who are emboldened by the idea that India is an emerging superpower among them.
But as ground zero keep emerging and with the changing stance of Global Times, the Communist Party of China Mouth Piece, on the same incident about the casualties, it’s clear that the move proved totally fatal. There is ample scope for speculation that China lost heavy on its side and is currently in face-saving mode.
Why to go to such an awful extent for the border in that mountainous terrain which has been kept open by the Chinese themselves all these years? It occurs that this is not and rather this was never a border issue between India and China, and that there is something more to what meets the eye.
China never wants these borders to be a perfectly cut out between the two countries in the first place, and it always wants it this way unlike India which is keen to resolve this as soon as possible. To give an insight, we have to go back to Nehru – Zhou Enlai’s era (1960’s) where the latter wanted to cut a deal by which China could take Arunachal Pradesh (Tawang District) in return for Ladakh’s borders to India, which Nehru clearly refused, resulting in 1962 Indo-Chinese War. Later Deng Xiaoping (1980s and ’90s) also tried to seal the deal, as they always believed and still believe that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of their Greater China vision.
The expansionist mindset later made China to think otherwise, the result of which is an unfinished border story that runs from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh till now. The current Xi-Jinping’s era to create a meteoric rise in its infrastructure projects especially on the Indo-China Border along the conflicted zone makes one thing clear that China now wants control over what “China establishes as border”. One such territory being the area of Aksai Hind (let us normalize this term as much as we can please!). This was grabbed from Pakistan assuring them to hold Indian Army at check always, giving India a 2 front check (one from Pak and another from China), in return for Pakistan’s vote of support for UNSC’s permanent seat in return. This was also to provide Pakistanis cover for their ISI trained terrorists to enter into Kashmir valley.
If one gives a closer look at this, it would become clear that whenever there’s been a skirmish at Indo-China border, the shell firing across the Indo-Pak LOC would have been more, eventually benefitting the terrorist intruders to enter into Kashmir. So we can easily say that taking back Aksai Hind would partially solve the Kashmir conflict as that would technically cut China and Pakistan’s nexus over Kashmir.
It would also go on to strategically take on China with the China’s access to Gwadar through the CPEC and also the Belt and Road Initiative. So keeping India at check behind LAC also means to divert India’s attention from the larger area, but with the opening of DBO Airstrip and construction of the road from Leh to DBO by India breaks this plan by China. Solving this border dispute between Indo-China would also mean accepting the controversial G-219 highway. The infrastructure passes from Tibet to Xinjian (autonomous regions), the former is a dispute with Tibet and the latter is an issue of separatist movement by Uighur Muslims, which China has crushes by persecuting them in concentration camps aka re-education centres.
Now, India taking back Aksai Hind would mean cutting Chinese army access between these two provinces which could lead to an uncontrollable uprising from both places, where one would fight for the Independence and other for its Identity, resulting in a weak and unattended border with India, which definitely would make India a Stronger participant in the region.
On one hand China is pushing Nepalese communist government to claim Indian lands by pressurizing them to approve the controversial border maps and on the other hand it is creating conflicts in POK through Pakistan shows how desperately China wants to use all its options to create trouble for India from all fronts. Communists in China should know that India and Nepal relationships goes share the same civilizational history and the people-to-people ties are intricate.
To conclude, public sentiment across the world and probably within China too is against the crony Communists whose lust for power and expansionism seems to not be under control. Its adventure in the Galwan Valley is an attempt to shift focus from the havoc it has caused due to the Chinese virus. It remains to be seen as how India gives a logical conclusion to it. What was started by China will be ended and should be ended by India to record its place in the new global order.