It goes without saying that India has had mixed relations with her neighbours, since the dawn of independence. With each passing year, the issues with her north western neighbour, China, seem to only be escalating in gravity despite the several diplomatic discussions that take place. India has a lot more to lose with its disputes with China, obviously because the latter is emerging to be a superpower in all facets of international prominence. The rising competition between the two countries for singular prominence in Asia doesn’t help the cause. India’s development, in this sense, might even be a threat to China. This article attempts to explore the potential causes for the turbulent relationship between the two countries. But it is of utmost necessity to go back to when it all began.
The tension finds its origin back to 1962, post Indian independence, when “The Clash on the Roof of the World”, as some called it, ended with China taking control of Aksai Chin. The Chinese strategy of territorial seizing is still in force as is evident from the country’s refusal to accept the Macmahon line as the line separating Indian territory from Tibet. If all this is an attempt to fulfill Mao Zedong’s “Five Fingers of Tibet”, India has reason to be cautious of China’s every advancing step. What comes to mind now is, where the accepted and approved demarcation between the two countries actually lies, considering that it is the primary reason for this age-old falling out. The lack of clarity that concerns this is seemingly hidden by the Line of Actual Control, which just seems to be a formality in light of the Galwan incident.
China also has a history of prompt retaliation to Indian activity close to the border. This is conspicuous in China’s remark of the changing of Ladakh's status to union territory as “unacceptable”. Their resistance to the construction of the much-needed DS-DBO Road is just another example of this. It probably hampers the “freedom” they otherwise have at the LAC, as they have often been reported to move closer to the border, contrary to the agreement. What is even more worrisome is India’s relatively passive response to all this. It often seems like India’s issues with Pakistan get more addressed than those with China. The issue does not seem to be getting the attention it deserves.
Needless to say, the intertwined nature of the Chinese and Indian economies could be a plausible reason for this. The large number of cheap Chinese goods that hold autonomy over the Indian market can speak for this. From this, it is obvious that India has far more losses to incur if China is dissatisfied with India's diplomacy. Last year, India banned 59 Chinese applications from app stores. It is worth exploring if it was actually linked to the disputes. But the question remains - will that alone suffice? Isn’t it even slightly ironic that China is in fact India’s sole trade partner despite the bubbling borderline tensions?
Another avenue worth venturing is the underlying differences in ideology between the ruling parties of the two countries. The communism of the PLA and the ideology of the ruling party in India could, though trifling, be one other reason for a lack of agreement on the border skirmishes. China, being a one-party nation also has the drawback of not having a diverse representation of values, on the international front, in the long run. The deepening India-US relations, in the background of each of their strained relationships with China, and the consequent frown from the latter, cannot go unnoticed either. India’s pulling out of the RCEP and the subsequent constraints on Chinese imports just add to the list. There is much at stake for world peace, particularly when the two countries in question possess nuclear warheads.
With China being a developed country and India on its swift journey to development, the world, in general, has so much to gain if the two countries put their heads together. The approach to reaching an agreement needs to be a holistic one, if it should bear fruit. Let's hope a better way will be found to ease the tension between them, as both nations have a lot to lose if there continues to be a strain. As with all things, all that those not in power can do, after making themselves heard, is look out to a peaceful future.
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