INTRODUCTION
If we analyse the diplomatic honeymoon between India and China in the last 6 years, we can clearly, now read between the lines that Premier of China, Xi Jinping had been all along scheming and conniving to gain a psychological and diplomatic high ground over India The optimism of the world press, around the Chinese President's visit to India in 2014, was at the peak. The visit marked the new friendship forged between the two strongmen who had come to power within two years of each other. Six years later, the Modi -Xi relationship lies in tatters, as do ties between New Delhi and Beijing. With Chinese soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) having marched across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in May and occupied territory that the Indian army has traditionally controlled and patrolled, many Indians now see Xi and China as not just adversaries, but as implacable foes. latest incidents once again proved that Chinese are a race, who can never be trusted. Like sleeping with a python. There has been no movement on a boundary settlement since 2005, when China consented to sign off on a set of “political parameters” that would govern the final solution. China betrayed India's trust and goodwill gesture all these years, starting from Nehruvian era.
DIPLOMATIC GAME PLAYED BY CHINA
Even as Modi poured tea for Xi in Ahmedabad, Beijing took advantage of New Delhi's good gesture, by sending 1,000 troops across the LAC in Chumar, in Southern Ladakh.According to India’s foreign ministry, Modi sternly told Xi that such incidents would inevitably affect the larger relationship. With the PLA’s withdrawal from Chumar, the Indian PM was made to believe that his friendship with Xi, could result in the resolution of Sino-Indian disharmony. In May 2015, during his three-day visit to China, Modi pressed Xi again on the border question when they met in Xi’an. Officials familiar with the conversation say Xi did not even respond. Instead, in Beijing the next day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered PM Modi, a lecture featuring Beijing’s boilerplate formulation that the border question was a “complex issue left over from history” and that solving it required “patience.”
ROLE OF US IN SINO- INDIA RELATIONS
Through 2015 and 2016, New Delhi was preoccupied with our growing embrace of the US. In January 2015, President Barack Obama and Modi signed a “Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region”. Taking the US-India partnership beyond the 2014 Vision Statement and 2015 Declaration of Friendship, Modi and Obama “resolved that the United States and India should look to each other as priority partners in the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region.”Meanwhile, defence ministers Manohar Parrikar and his US counterpart, Ashton Carter, kicked off a US-India Maritime Security Dialogue and signed the Defence Technology and Trade Agreement (DTTI) and a long-delayed Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) and Communications Compatibility And Security Agreement (COMCASA). Washington also designated India a "Major Defence Partner", opening the doors for selling India high-technology military hardware. Washington also strongly backed New Delhi’s entry into the four global non-proliferation agreements: the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australia Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
A fuming Beijing signalled its displeasure. China blocked India’s candidature for NSG membership and placed a “technical hold” on the designation of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar as a global terrorist in the United Nations. The estrangement gathered momentum with New Delhi’s refusal in 2017, to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – China’s flagship infrastructure building project. The subterranean tussle between Modi and Xi came to a head in Doklam in 2017, when Indian troops intervened in territory that is disputed between China and Bhutan to block China’s road building for 73 tense days. The exceptionally aggressive messaging from China during the crisis suggests that Xi himself assumed control of events at some stage of the confrontation. A mutual pull-back was negotiated, but China eventually got its way by re-entering the disputed Doklam bowl later, which India did not contest “That was a clear message from China’s top leader,” says a top official, now retired, who served in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). “Xi was telling Modi that you cannot prevent China from taking what we think is ours.”India contested the aggressive posture of China and did a truce at Wuhan in April 2018. Following that, New Delhi implemented measures to placate Xi, including reining in the Tibetan diaspora. Modi spoke in June 2018 at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore, echoing Beijing in appealing against a “return to the age of great power rivalries” in the Indo-Pacific – effectively stating that the US had no place the region.
CHINESE CONSPIRACY
The Chinese leader perceived a perfect opportunity in the circumstances that was prevailing in April 2020 : a raging COVID-19 pandemic, New Delhi’s weakened position in the sub-continent, India’s unprecedented economic slowdown and America’s inward preoccupation with the bruising 2020 election battle.“ Xi would have aimed to prove Washington that its putative regional partner could not even safeguard its territory from China. Finally, Xi also wanted to show regional countries India’s subordinate place,” says a former PMO official. However, New Delhi surprised Beijing by its aggressive response and spoiled the designs of Xi .When 20 Indian soldiers were brutally ambushed and killed by Chinese troops, Indian Army retaliated and gave a befitting reply killing unspecified numbers of Chinese soldiers. However, India tried to de- escalate the tense situation. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh gave a statement in Parliament, stating that peace and tranquillity would prevail, if the Chinese disengaged.
CONCLUSION
However, it’s heartening to see that deliberate attempts are being made to dial down tension along the Line of Actual Control, of late. Following the September 10 agreement arrived between External Minister S Jai Shankar and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, on a 5 point approach to resolve the tense situation, India and China have agreed not to engage in " escalatory behaviour " along LOC .On 21 September, 2020, a 12 hour long 6th round meeting at the Moldo Border point between Indian and Chinese military commanders chalked out a joint strategy to take practical measures to properly solve problems on ground and jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border area. They unanimously agreed to refrain from sending any more troops and avoid taking any actions that may further complicate the situation
JAI HIND
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