Figuring Out China

- Harsh V. Pant

VEN AS PRIME Minister Narendra Modi was hugging US President Donald Trump in Washington DC in July, a tense standoff was underway between the armies of two of Asia’s major powers—China and India. Two units of the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been in a stare-down at the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan since 16 June—the longest border face-off between the two nations in decades. It all started when a PLA unit tried to construct a road towards a Bhutanese army camp in Zomplri area of the Dokhlam Plateau. The Royal Bhutanese Army protested the PLA’s construction activities, to be supported by the Indian Army two days later, and asked China to cease its efforts to alter the status quo. This led to a physical altercation between the two sides with the Chinese soldiers probably destroying a few temporary bunkers of the Indian Army.

Interestingly, unlike in the past, China has taken an unusually aggressive tone in its protests, portraying itself as a victim of Indian aggression. It upped the ante by asking India to recall the 1962 war and learn a lesson, to which New Delhi responded that “India of 2017 is different from India of 1962”. Expressing deep concern over China’s construction of a road in the disputed area, India conveyed to Beijing that such an action would represent a significant change of status quo with “serious” security implications for India.

For its part, Bhutan has issued a demarche to China over the construction of the road and asked Beijing to restore the status quo.