The Brigadier level talks between India & China are anything but conclusive and the Chinese are losing their patience. As the border tensions are speculated to worsen in the winters, India is preparing for the long haul, and this has made China a lot more jittery, so much so, that it is singing the tone of their Pakistani underlings. As reported in Chinese mouthpiece Global Times, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said “China does not recognize the so-called Union Territory of Ladakh illegally established by India, and opposes infrastructure construction in disputed border areas for military control purposes”, it was in response to the major road-building projects along the border added the Chinese state-affiliated media. This was the first time China has been so amateurish in their diplomacy as these are counter-intuitive statements.
The Indian government took no time to retaliate, in response Anurag Srivastava, Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, said that “India says it has never accepted the so-called unilaterally defined 1959 Line of Actual Control (LAC)”, it was a position India has maintained for long and last year, in Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reasserted India’s position vehemently, “When I say Jammu and Kashmir, it includes PoK. Both Indian and J&K constitutions also say that the state is an integral part of India and this gives us the right to form laws for the state, which includes PoK and Aksai Chin”.
India maintained its position and also stated that “We expect that the Chinese side will sincerely and faithfully abide by all agreements and understandings in their entirety and refrain from advancing an untenable unilateral interpretation of the LAC”. After the series of statements and counterstatements for the last few months, this latest exchange has re-opened the pandora’s box, and the conversation on the Indian side of the border is solidifying the opinion that India should not recognize China’s claims on Tibet and also move away from the one-China policy recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation, as it is the just & equitable response.
It can also be speculated that China did not expect that India will look it straight into the eye without bending to the Chinese provocations. It has misinterpreted the hospitality PM Modi showed to be accepting the Chinese supremacy, which was a worse calculation than a 3-year-old can perform. And the death of 20 Indian soldiers has made all the things very personal for every Indian citizen and PM Modi.
As earlier reported in TFI “Dr S. Jaishankar, India’s Foreign Minister also conveyed to Wang Yi, his counterpart from China that India was willing to disengage, but the onus around the same would lie solely with China, which is rather infamous for walking back on its commitments. With no visible change in the ground situation yet, and an uneasy calm prevailing along the LAC for the past one week, it is highly likely that China is willing to surrender. It is also likely that they are strategizing their next offences against India, in which case they will have to part ways with Aksai Chin.”
The winters are coming, China is scared as India is digging in for the winters, as per HT reports, “Since early May, India and China have been engaged in a standoff in Ladakh sector of the LAC that has taken bilateral ties to an all-time low. Both sides have mobilized more than 50,000 troops each in the region and are now preparing to dig in for the harsh winter.” India has been equipping its soldiers and leaving no stones unturned so that its proud line of defence (Indian Armed Forces) are not let down by the government. PM Modi’s unwavering support for the military and men & women in uniform increased their morale, and the Chinese are rattled.