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By APD Writer Wang Peng
A month ago, Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat said in an interaction with ANI that the Indian Army is well-prepared to face external, as well as internal threats to the country.
Speaking to ANI, General Bipin Rawat emphasized, “Indian Army is fully ready for a two-and-a-half front (China, Pakistan and internal security requirements simultaneously) war”. From then on, the term ‘2.5 front war’ has become a hot key word in cyber China.
Indian Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat
Now, General Bipin Rawat’s words come true. Amid growing tensions along the eastern borders with China, severe conflicts with Pakistan in Kashmir warned of India the threat of “two-front conflict” with China and Pakistan, two powerful nuclear rivals, at the same time.
New Delhi should figure out what will happen if India is involved in exchange of fire with Pakistani troops in Kashmir when their troops are still staying in Chinese territory.
Over the last 30 years, China has always kept its promise to strictly maintain neutral and balanced, and do nothing with the situation in Kashmir.
China sincerely acts as a fair mediator in the tough regional disputes in Kashmir, even at the cost of embarrassing its most important ‘all-weather strategic partnership of cooperation’, or namely the ‘iron friend’, Pakistan.
China really did what it said, and hence leaves India a relatively large room of strategic measures in both Kashmir issue and its competition against Pakistan.
However, now it is widely believed that China may change its mind due to the increasing rivalry between Beijing and New Delhi, which was caused by Indian’s unwise moves and inexplicable security anxiety.
In the Doklam area, Indian army are trespassing and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road that aims to provide civilian services linking China and its neighbor Bhutan.
China-India border trade.
Though these projects will not benefit India’s national interests, there is no valid reason to regard those civilian constructions as either military threat or sovereign violation to India.
So that is why there is so much public anger in cyber China on this issue. People wondered, “why is a third party (India) interfering in the matters related to Bhutan?” “Are there anything or your (Indian) business? ”, angry Chinese netizens said.
At the same time, CCTV, the Chinese state-run media also sent out unusually stern warnings,“Do not say that you are not forewarned”.
Anyone who knows the Chinese state-media discourse must know the last time the Beijing threw these words was the eve before the China-Vietnam war in 1978.
Will New Delhi follow Hanoi’s step? We hope not. First, the direct military conflicts between two nuclear powers are not manageable or controllable, since the unpredictable escalations are very like to make it full-scale war, in and after which, there is no winners.
Second, considering the increasing tensions around, including Kashmir with Pakistan, India may turn to find a decent excuse to withdraw. If so, China had better offer them ‘glory’; do not be stingy nominally.
Dr. Wang Peng, Research Fellow at Charhar Institute, Lecturer at the China Institute of Fudan University.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
