It has been a year since the blood-seeking Chinese PLA soldiers surprised the Indian troops patrolling the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and killed 20 of them in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley with medieval spear-like sharp instruments. It pushed India-China ties, always perilous, to a dangerous low point and sent alarm signals globally. But any hope that the Chinese would make genuine moves to push aside the last June episode and work for mutual trust building seems to have been lost.

Conscious of their image problem across the world, the Chinese have kept up the charade of dialogue with India at various levels while uttering some reconciliatory rhetoric like India and China should ‘cooperate’ rather than confront each other. Trouble is China wants India to ‘cooperate’ while refusing to complete the process of disengagement in all the friction points along the Line of Actual Control.  The Chinese have been taking the specious plea that their troops are within the Chinese territory.

China wants India to respect the line that it unilaterally draws on the boundary and expects India to respect its perception of the boundary.    The Dragon constantly riles India using its state-owned or Communist party-controlled media outlets, especially Global Times, to threaten and malign the land of Buddha and Gandhi. 

The Chinese arrogance precludes an early solution of the problem at the LAC. Some observers feel there might be another round of trouble in winter. That is the time of the year when the Chinese assume they have advantages over Indian troops in the freezing Himalayan heights. The Chinese have a distinct logistic advantage too, having built roads, bridges, bunkers and hauled heavy military equipment close to the LAC.  

New Delhi faces a peculiar dilemma. Statements like ‘We want peace but if anyone threatens us we will give a befitting reply’ carry no meaning if the country is not in a position to give a ‘befitting reply.’  At the same time, the Modi government does not want to force a military solution on China, but the rapid infrastructure improvements along the Himalayan borders, keeping the Chinese threat in mind, has served a purpose – it has considerably reduced the chances of China launching a full-scale war against India in pursuit of its expansionist policy. 

India appears to subscribe to the view that it will be enough if China can be prevented from deep incursions into in the Himalayan border region. So much so the utmost China can hope for is periodic nibbling and holding on to whatever is gained in the territory that it perceives to be its own. But after 1962, China has not occupied any large chunk of Aksai Chin scale of Indian territory.

Admittedly, the wide gap between India and China in the military, economic and technological capabilities give China the upper hand in any bilateral dispute.  Indian government says it is working overtime to narrow the gap, though the road map is not yet in public domain. 

The best course for the two countries will be, of course, to remove mutual mistrust; they must work in real cooperative spirit for mutual advantage. It is easier said than done because of China’s naked exhibition of expansionist ambitions and the desire to lord over the world. 

China appears convinced that within the next decade or so it will become the world’s premier power, both economically and militarily. It believes India will be left farther behind. India’s virtual military alliances in the India-Pacific region certainly dampen China’s ambition to launch military adventurism against it.

The disparaging manner in which China has criticised the Quad suggests that military ‘cooperation’ among the four nations does bother China. Quad has its critics in India. But the criticism will look weak if it is viewed as an overall exercise to strengthen ties with friends, especially in the far and near neighbourhood at a time when China has been threatening the sovereignty and integrity of many nations in the Asia-Pacific region. 

There is no denying the significance of India having to redouble efforts at economic recovery in these days of frequent lock-downs induced by Covid-19 pandemic.  Because an economically strong and united India is a prerequisite for preventing China from encroaching Indian territories in the Himalayas.