The Dragon's Nibbling

 

                 

China's ambitions at the LAC and what can India do to thwart away the Chinese threat.

When one thinks of the recent face-off between the armies of the two Asian superpowers, the last thing which would come to our mind is that the leaders of both China and India, once sat side by side for an informal talk on the banks of the Sabarmati river.That was about 6 years ago and both countries come a long way since then.

Strategists around the world had predicted 21st century as the Asian century, mostly dominated by China and India.But what the Xi wants is Pax Sinica, replacing America as the world hegemony.But what has it got to do with India? Simple.India is seen by all, including China as a superpower in the near future.To dominate the world their strategy is to limit India to its subcontinental sphere.

To start of, China has already realized this and started muscle-flexing not only with India but even with its other neighbors. It claims Hong Kong and Taiwan as its own and also the strategically important and the busy South China Sea and some of the islands in them.The Aksai Chin which is a part of Kashmir has been with them since many decades. Now,they are also claiming the Galwan Valley and the Depsang Bulge which was never in their sight.So why do they always keep nibbling into Indian territory since the independence?

For starters, the Kashmir area is very rich in water.This can be even more valuable than gold for country which is the exporter of the world because in making every almost everything, water is required. Secondly, the Depsang Bulge area is strategically very important for the Indian Army because it is just 30 km from the Leh highway which overlooks the Karakorum pass.Overall, they would want to connect themselves with Pakistan. If we go deeper, we can understand that the PLA's adventure at the LAC is in fact a warning to India which supported the international demand for China to probe into the origins of Corona Virus.    

So, what can India do to prevent the dragon's nibbling? One thing we can do is to conquer the Chinese Occupied Kashmir by force.This move was and will be a blunder because Nehru during 1962 committed the same mistake because of which the Chinese occupied more area in the Kashmir. Imposing trade sanctions is not feasible either because many of the our companies are dependent on the Chinese imports. Moreover, the Chinese incursion may increase drastically due to it.

So, what can we do? Do we need to go along the tide? Even though we cannot fully stop the Chinese incursions, however, we must at least take some retaliatory actions. They can't kill our soldiers at one side and keep benefiting from our market on the other side.We must promote local companies and increase their competitiveness to match our better than their Chinese counterparts.

We must also increase our might militarily and economically to match them. A mere 2.75 lakh crore$/2.75 Trillion$ economy is a pale shadow compared to China, which is approximately 5 times more at 13.6 lakh crore$/13.6 Trillion$. The story is not much different militarily.The 261 billion$ Chinese defense budget every year is three and a half times more than Indian budget of 71 billion$. The Chinese make their own weapons and are the second largest producers while the Indians depend on import from other countries as it doesn't mostly manufacture its weapons.

Other than them, India must make their ties closer with the US and the west. We must also raise our voices and point out the Chinese discrimination at Tibet, Uighur and Xinjiang. We must also be vary of the Chinese companies entering into our market as all their data is sent to the Chinese Communist Party(CCP). It may anger the Chinese and they may increase the frequency of the border incursions but we must improve our border infrastructure and must do some tough patrolling on the LAC. Maintaining good defense and intelligence may help to drastically reduce their incursions.

We are being bullied at the hands of the Chinese because we cannot match with them pound to pound. But, if we can build an Atmanirbhar (Self-Reliant) Bharat, increase our competitiveness reduce imports and increase exports and build a strong India, then we can repel the Chinese threat.

Nothing is invincible. At its peak, any power make look unconquerable. But its domination has to end at a point. Just like how the sun has set on the empire which was once known as the empire where sun never sets, the same could happen to them. No country can survive on the basis of opaqueness and by subjugating rights of the people. 

All my views are personal and is not meant to hurt anybody's feelings.

The images above are not mine.