I don't think the tension between China and India will die down anytime soon, as much as we all would like to see some sort of modus vivendi between the two countries. The realities of geopolitics and the acute competition between China and the U.S. is going to make Indian elites take advantage of this opportunity for their own benefit to bridge the gap of power that has increasingly been tilting to China's advantage. The level of disparity and gap of power between these two Asian giants is one of the key reasons animating India from forging an alliance of convenience with the U.S. as we can see with their participation with QUAD and other U.S. led arrangements that are designed to stop China's dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.
Manoj Joshi, one of Indias prominent academic/journalist has just released a book this month discussing the pertinent issue of the disputed border between China and India. His book is titled:
On this book he argues that as China's growing power increases over India, China grows more assertive with respect to how it sees the border issue with India. He writes the following:
The Himalayan border disputes are less a cause of a potential conflict than a symptom of the shifting balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. Joshi notes that when China and India viewed each other as equals in the immediate post-Cold War world, the border disputes seemed less important. But as China’s economic and military rise significantly outpaced India’s, Beijing’s border diplomacy became more demanding, and China became more assertive in the Indian Ocean littoral by moving to encircle India with the so-called “string of pearls” port facilities. India sought ways to redress its growing imbalance with China, turning to the United States, Japan, and Australia at the same time that the Trump administration took a more confrontational approach to China. Joshi explains:
"As mutuality of interests developed in New Delhi and Washington in balancing China … as the gap between India’s economy and its military capacity and that of China has widened, India has begun to lean harder on the United States."
He even expressed on his most recent guesting on this youtube video that if China were to conduct it's operation in Taiwan, it could potentially participate in the blocking of the Malacca strait with the U.S. seemingly unaware that such action will be interpreted or even be use as a caucus belli for War by China against India.
Both India and China may truly want peace with each other but geopolitics the way it is simply makes it impossible for these two countries to forge some sort of relationship that's truly beneficial for the entire region. India, has it's own preeminent ambition seeing itself as the paramount power within her hemisphere while China hemmed by the natural boundaries of hostile countries and a wayward rebellious territory (Taiwan) feels constrained from exercising it's growing and increasing economic power along with it her military power. And since Chinese leaders are astute students of history, they remember China being attacked and easily beaten at the sea by two of the greatest military naval power in history: Britain during the Opium Wars, and Japan during the Sino-Japanese War losing the island of Taiwan, along with the disputed island of Diayao or Senkaku to the Japanese. A bitter lesson that's been etched to the entire CPC/PLA psyche to never again let that kind of humiliation to happen again. China and India will clash sometime in the future in order for these two countries to accept their pecking order in the hierarchy of power and order, maybe only then shall one accept it's fate or not. We will find out perhaps in the coming years.
Manoj Joshi, one of Indias prominent academic/journalist has just released a book this month discussing the pertinent issue of the disputed border between China and India. His book is titled:
On this book he argues that as China's growing power increases over India, China grows more assertive with respect to how it sees the border issue with India. He writes the following:
The Himalayan border disputes are less a cause of a potential conflict than a symptom of the shifting balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. Joshi notes that when China and India viewed each other as equals in the immediate post-Cold War world, the border disputes seemed less important. But as China’s economic and military rise significantly outpaced India’s, Beijing’s border diplomacy became more demanding, and China became more assertive in the Indian Ocean littoral by moving to encircle India with the so-called “string of pearls” port facilities. India sought ways to redress its growing imbalance with China, turning to the United States, Japan, and Australia at the same time that the Trump administration took a more confrontational approach to China. Joshi explains:
"As mutuality of interests developed in New Delhi and Washington in balancing China … as the gap between India’s economy and its military capacity and that of China has widened, India has begun to lean harder on the United States."
He even expressed on his most recent guesting on this youtube video that if China were to conduct it's operation in Taiwan, it could potentially participate in the blocking of the Malacca strait with the U.S. seemingly unaware that such action will be interpreted or even be use as a caucus belli for War by China against India.
Both India and China may truly want peace with each other but geopolitics the way it is simply makes it impossible for these two countries to forge some sort of relationship that's truly beneficial for the entire region. India, has it's own preeminent ambition seeing itself as the paramount power within her hemisphere while China hemmed by the natural boundaries of hostile countries and a wayward rebellious territory (Taiwan) feels constrained from exercising it's growing and increasing economic power along with it her military power. And since Chinese leaders are astute students of history, they remember China being attacked and easily beaten at the sea by two of the greatest military naval power in history: Britain during the Opium Wars, and Japan during the Sino-Japanese War losing the island of Taiwan, along with the disputed island of Diayao or Senkaku to the Japanese. A bitter lesson that's been etched to the entire CPC/PLA psyche to never again let that kind of humiliation to happen again. China and India will clash sometime in the future in order for these two countries to accept their pecking order in the hierarchy of power and order, maybe only then shall one accept it's fate or not. We will find out perhaps in the coming years.
