India-China: "India must think to improvise ties with China"

Alka Acharya, Professor of Chinese studies at the Centre for East Asian Studies in the Jawaharlal Nehru University told in a telephonic interview that India must think of ways to improvise its ties with China more than focusing on its relations (India-China) with the West.

At least 20 Indian soldiers including an officer were killed in a clash with the Chinese troops in the disputed Himalayan border region. The violent face-off in Ladakh on Monday night was the first deadly skirmish along the Line of Actual Control with China since 1975.

Alka Acharya, Professor of Chinese studies at the Centre for East Asian Studies in the Jawaharlal Nehru University told in a telephonic interview that India must think of ways to improvise its ties with China more than focusing on its relations with the West. Acharya, who is also the author of the book China and India: Politics of Incremental Engagement adds that China is in a position of strength and the stand-off is a serious one.

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Prime Minister Modi didn’t really get into the details of the standoff, it was just about India’s sovereignty. Considering the Foreign Minister’s statement on the skirmishes, he makes it clear that the Chinese had made pre-meditated and planned action. There is no other option to deal with the matter other than having a dialogue at this moment.

It’s difficult to have a concrete view on this but can still speculate a few reasons. The Chinese might not want to get into the battle of numbers or there could be more casualties on their side or it’s just a difference in the method of governance.

As we don’t have much information about what’s really going on, it’s difficult to assess. The larger perspective on the stand-off is built from the pieces that have been reported on each day. It’s kind of bizarre but under speculations, one can say that the intelligence wasn’t working or the government didn’t take it up seriously.

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India’s closeness with the United States has been an irritant for quite some time now but I don’t think that could be the major reason for this escalation. India’s partnership with the anti-China countries – Japan, the US, and Australia, might have made the Chinese worry a little more. Australia has been serious about making China accountable for the pandemic in recent time and that’s well-known.

This rise in nationalism and boycotting campaigns are just immediate fall-outs. Boycott of Chinese products is a problematic and painful thing particularly at a time of a global pandemic. I don’t see such a thing can happen anytime soon. There can only be chances for both the nations to improvise their trade once the problem is sorted.

Trump is a joke and no one takes him seriously.

China is in a position of strength. India has lost its territory and what it would do depends on how the government would react. The trust factor is obviously zero. De-escalation is important and it’s already happening and India would be holding talks and this can go for months. More than having an alliance with the West, India thinking of ways to improve ties with China is significant.

It started off quite right. China was helping India in different ways but the Pakistan factor ruined the relation. Pakistan’s closeness with China and framing an opinion based on the phrase that your enemy’s friend is an enemy, the relationship was kind of affected. Belt and Road Initiative and China Pakistan Economic Corridors are the major reasons. Not thinking of ways to deal with China is kind of crippling India’s strategic space. Well, that’s where the Modi administration went off the rails.

Written by Vijay Srinivas, Bengaluru.

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