New Delhi, Septembe 07: Chinese troops are challenging India again. Reports say Chinese troops entered the international border in Ladakh and painted “China” in Cantonese on boulders and rocks in Indian territory.
Indian border patrol found on July 3 that Chinese troops had entered nearly 1.5 km into Indian territory near Mount Gya, which is recognised as international border by both countries.
A week ago it was reported that Chinese helicopters came into Indian air space along the Line of Actual Control in Chumar region of Jammu and Kashmir in June. The Indian Army recorded 270 border violations and nearly 2,300 cases of “aggressive border patrolling” by Chinese soldiers last year.
Are these intrusions intended to provoke India? Does China want to convey some message through these intrusions?
The answer is complex and related to the negations the two countries are conducting to resolve their territorial and border disputes, said C Uday Bhaskar, strategic expert, columnist and director of National Maritime Foundation.
“There seems to be an attempt from China to step up the kind of leverages they have as far as India is concerned, particularly over complex territorial disputes,” Bhaskar told CNN-IBN.
“India and China, over the last few years, have had a number of incursions and ‘violations’ of the Line of Control they both recognise. Just as we have instances of Chinese coming into this side, there are instances of China similarly making allegations about Indians entering Chinese territory.”
Bhaskar, a former director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, believed there has been a “steady pattern” in Chinese strategy in the last few months.
“Whether it’s violation of air space or the kind of reportage that has come from some Chinese journals, there is an anxiety growing in India that is China increasing pressure at a time when the two sides are engaged in a formal dialogue on the complex territorial and border issue.”
India has publicly said that it is committed to improving infrastructure along its border with China in order to help its armed forces. Could the Chinese be warning India not to go any further?
“I think this is a complex kind of signaling that is going between India and China.” China, last year, took a position that was detrimental to India at the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which was discussing the India-US nuclear deal.
China, earlier this year, tried to block a $2.9 billion dollar Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan to India. It said part of the loan was intended for water projects in Arunachal Pradesh, which includes Tawang, an area which the Communist nation says is disputed.
China, in May 2007, refused to grant visa to an IAS officer from Arunachal Pradesh. Bhaskar said by these actions China is “pressing its own case” in talks with India.
“I call this complex signaling. India’s relationship with China will really be predicated on its capacities: political capacity, economic capacity and military capacity. We have to work on all three fronts,” he said.
–Agencies