Chinese President Xi Jinping has exposed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers to great personal harm. Over the past year, the Chinese PLA has been facing a spate of casualties at the hands of the Indian Army and the extreme climate of Eastern Ladakh where India and China are locked in a fierce military standoff. At the root of the entire issue is a big miscalculation on China’s part regarding the capabilities of the Indian Army.
How China miscalculated India’s military might
The Indian Army is a professional military service whereas, the Chinese PLA is just a gang of armed men that operates as the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Therefore, while the Indian military establishment made a proper assessment of the threat posed by China, the PLA remained somewhat oblivious to the capabilities of the Indian Army.
Since 2018, the PLA’s online media has released several videos and articles about India. Strangely, none of them discusses India’s military might. They have been concerned only with India’s arms purchases from countries like the US. Even during the Ladakh military standoff, the PLA media avoided making an in-depth discussion about India’s military might.
China lives in anachronism
“Science of Military Strategy,” a book released by the PLA Academy of Military Science in 2013 serves as the most detailed coverage of India amongst all recent PLA studies. The “Science of Military Strategy” was translated into English by the US-based China Aerospace Studies Institute in 2021. The 2013 study argued that India’s post-Cold War strategy has been all about maintaining military superiority and hegemony in the South Asia region, keeping China and other big powers out of its league.
The 2013 publication was written in a different environment when there was a three-week-long standoff between India and China. The Chinese PLA troops had infiltrated and set up positions 19 kilometres inside Indian territory. The reports which followed the incident made the chilling revelation that India had lost 640 sq. km of land due to “area denial” set by PLA patrolling. The then Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh faced questions that he could not answer and was easy prey for Xi Jinping, who was testing the waters with belligerent tactics at the border.
Beijing probably thought that India wasn’t looking to match China’s military strength, given the Depsang stand-off in 2013. However, China remains anachronistic to date. It doesn’t understand that a lot has changed over the last eight years. India elected a new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, a tough leader with a nationalist agenda, for whom national security is the priority. Since then, India has developed a firm outlook against Chinese belligerence and has been building up its military strength with the acquisition of lethal weapons and the construction of world-class infrastructure including an extensive road network along the effective Indo-Tibetan border.
How China Miscalculated its Own Soldiers’ Capabilities
Close to 70 per cent of the Chinese military force is comprised of single children, with no siblings. As such, they have been brought up as pampered “little emperors” by parents and grandparents. Chinese families are very emotional about their children since there is only one. Effectively, millions of children grew up believing they were “little emperors”.
Such children-turned-soldiers, on their part too, have the least interest in dying for the CCP. Therefore, even in the combat field, Chinese soldiers prefer the easier way out, and it usually involves surrendering to the enemy force. Such behaviour is directly attributable to the extremely low morale of Chinese troops.
The situation with the PLA is so grim that China today trusts lifeless weapons and machines more than it trusts its soldiers, who by the way, suffer from excessive masturbation addiction.
The People’s Liberation Army of China’s only justification to exist in the modern world is that they emerged victors in the Chinese Civil War. Apart from that victory, there isn’t much for the PLA to account for. The last real war which the Chinese armed forces fought was in 1979 against Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh handed the Chinese soldiers their pants.
Chinese soldiers also have a knack for crying and breaking down at the drop of a hat. But then, what better can you expect from wimps who are forced MMA and Kung Fu training by the CCP, even when they could be in their beds doing what they do best?
Working towards world domination, the CCP has been looking to produce biologically advanced ‘super-soldiers’ for the PLA To gain an unfair advantage over its adversaries, and, to make up for the sissy-like behaviour of PLA troops, the paper dragon has been contemplating the deployment of biotechnologically-tinkered ‘little emperors’ against its primary foes.
Essentially, China has grossly overestimated the capabilities of its soldiers, which is why it got a rude shock from India last year.
China Proved Wrong
An arrogant China has consistently argued that India’s show of military might is often meant only for domestic consumption and has no strategic significance.
Yet, when the Indian Army and PLA troops exchanged blows at the Galwan Valley last year, several Chinese troops were hacked to death by the battle-hardened Indian Army soldiers. Similarly, India had also taken control of strategic heights near the LAC in a surprise retaliatory move that had caught China napping. While India reported and honoured the ultimate sacrifice made by 20 Indian soldiers, the Chinese side hid the number of casualties. The estimates made by the Indian establishment pegged Chinese casualties at over 40, whereas a US intelligence report pegged the number at 35. Russian state-owned news agency TASS claimed that 45 PLA soldiers had been killed in the clashes. China, on the other hand, denied memorials to its dead soldiers, and to top it all, Chinese officials contradicted each other several times as they attempted to mention the number of dead Chinese soldiers. China has publicly accepted only four deaths so far – and the admission came over several months.
Such humiliation was a result of China being rather naive and dismissing India’s strategic moves as an attempt to mobilise domestic opinion or to divert public attention. China faces a tough Indian Army and its miscalculation has led to several PLA troops getting slaughtered.