Having been pushed into a disadvantageous position in the past few days, China begged India for a top-level meeting of the Defence Ministers of both countries. Why it did so is not yet known, as obviously, the government of India is not willing to budge by an inch on its stand of protecting India’s territorial integrity at all costs. On the sidelines of the SCO meet in Moscow, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh met his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe yesterday, and the meeting is said to have lasted for over two hours. Pictures which emerged out of the meeting were enough to suggest that China was being thrashed by Raksha Mantri right, left and centre for its grievous misadventures in Eastern Ladakh.
The body language of Rajnath Singh gave it all away, even as a meek Chinese side couldn’t help but accept the rightful scolding that they were receiving. Since August 30, with India occupying the dominating heights along the tense Pangong Tso lake, the tables have been turned in our favour in an unprecedented manner, with China still failing to comprehend what struck them. That the Special Frontier Force comprising ethnic Tibetan has been rolled into action, and publicly so by the Indian side has served as a rude shock for China.
Unlike other occasions, this time around, China walked into the meeting with no leverage whatsoever, which it might have used to strongarm India into submission. Traditionally, China stokes up tensions with India, and any other rival country before sitting down with it for high-level talks so as to gain an advantage for itself at the negotiating table. This time, the powers were completely with India, much to China’s dismay. India gaining multiple vantage points over the Chinese in Pangong Tso has gone a long way in ensuring the power dynamics are in absolute Indian favour.
For the Chinese, India occupying dominating heights along the lake is a nightmare, which is why the Defence Minister of China was so keen to meet Rajnath Singh at Moscow, perhaps to convince him of recalling Indian troops from the said heights. Far from such aims, the Chinese, by the looks of it, were made to answer some tough questions by the Raksha Mantri.
On expected lines, India made it clear that there should not be any doubt among the Chinese on the resolve of the Indian side to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The meeting, as expected, seems to have ended in a stalemate, with the Chinese side resorting to ranting via its state media. “The responsibility lies entirely with the Indian side,” China screamed, with state media going as far as quoting Wei Fenghe saying that China will not give “an inch of its territory.”
The Chinese Defence Minister, as per state media, also said, “The cause and truth of the current tension on the China-India border are very clear, and the responsibility lies entirely with the Indian side.”
“Not an inch of China’s territory can be lost,” he added. “The Chinese military has the resolve, capability and confidence to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” This begs the question, did the Chinese side desperately request India for such a high-level meeting only to allow their state media to go on such a ranting spree, issuing dramatic remarks whose veracity too, by the way, is questionable? As a matter of fact, India has made it abundantly clear in its official statement too, that it was the Chinese Defence Minister himself who asked for the meeting.
Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh meets Chinese Defence Minister at "latter’s request" on the sidelines of SCO meeting in Moscow. MEA also puts out the read out (Same as Defence Ministry read out) https://t.co/96tZ981elH pic.twitter.com/m7kPN35hwu
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) September 5, 2020
China is now behaving like a defeatist nation, issuing hyperbolic statements to cover up for the massive loss of face which they have been made to suffer in the past few days.
