Chinese posturing

India now has the dubious distinction of being the Asian nation with the highest number of coronavirus cases. At a time when the country ought to be devoting all its energies to containing the pandemic, it is constrained to keep an eye on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), where Chinese transgressions are growing by the day. Facing the prospect of international isolation over its handling of the Covid-19 crisis, China is busy throwing its weight around in the neighbourhood. ‘Chinese aggression’, the term often used for the 1962 war, is gradually acquiring a contemporary ring. At Galwan in eastern Ladakh, Chinese troops have positioned themselves 3-4 km inside the line indisputably claimed by India. Such brazenness has apparently not been witnessed in decades. China is also cocking a snook at the border pacts signed since 1993, including the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement of 2013.

A former Foreign Secretary, who also served as the chairman of the National Security Advisory Board, has stated that the Chinese actions could be a three-pronged warning to India: don’t join US-led China-bashing over Covid-19; refrain from backing the restoration of observer status to Taiwan in the World Health Organisation (WHO); and desist from steps that harm China’s economic interests. With India now heading the WHO’s Executive Board, and an inquiry into the origin of the lethal virus imminent, China seems keen on browbeating its neighbour into toeing the line rather than acknowledging the latter’s growing clout in the international arena.

The onus is on New Delhi to exercise restraint. Yet, this is also the time for resolute assertion of India’s interests. India’s priority is to tackle the unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis. In the tug-of-war between the US and China, India is merely guarding its own sovereignty. At the same time, it would be naïve of China to assume that it can plough a lonely furrow in the post-pandemic world. That’s where India has a chance to build on the success of the Wuhan and Mamallapuram summits and make China see reason. Bilateral cooperation, not one-upmanship, should be the way forward.

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