DEVELOPMENTS THAT RATTLED CHINA IN A FORTNIGHT

Beijing has reacted sharply to some of New Delhi's recent strategic achievements. The Middle Kingdom needs to be clear about the inevitable rise of its neighbouring middle power

- LT GEN SYED ATA HASNAIN

INTERESTING developments in the domain of Sino-Indian relations took place almost simultaneously last fortnight. The relationship has not been in the best of states since May 2020, when the East Ladakh standoff commenced between the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army and resulted in some serious clashes at Galwan on June 15, 2020. The relationship seemed to dive only further south.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated the Sela Tunnel, which has been bored at a cost of 825 crore and is 1.5 km long at a height of 3,000 metres, well below the height of 4,200 metres at which the Sela Pass exists. The Chinese seemed to have their age-old objection about the visit of any dignitary to Arunachal Pradesh, which they claim as their territory called Southern Tibet (or Zangnam). For the Indian PM, it was perhaps a carefully thought-out measure to assert sovereignty and project a sense of strategic confidence in the face of repeated psychological warfare. The completion of the tunnel in an area it calls its own is itself objected to by the PLA. Little does China and its official media, The Global Times, say about the entire corridor it has constructed through Gilgit-Baltistan, an area legitimately belonging to India.

Militarily, the Sela tunnel acts as a force multiplier in the speedy deployment of troops to hot war locations in the Kameng division of Arunachal Pradesh, one of the regions where the PLA and the Indian Army clashed during the Sino-Indian border war in 1962. With all-weather rapid induction of troops, the tunnel provides a psychological boost for India's military commanders who have always had to fret over the optimum size of deployment for winter and the quantum of winter stocking of supplies and ammunition.