Giant Threat

Is the withdrawal from Doklam the end of China’s threats? And is there anything the world can do?

- Ashali Varma

As we celebrate the stunning work done by the ministry of External Affairs and Ajit Doval which – together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own stature in the world – helped dilute the Doklam standoff, I have to say that China cannot be trusted.

I heard the Chinese spokesperson speak and, as usual, it was doublespeak. She said, “Chinese troops continue to patrol the area and continue to exercise sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with the historical conventions.” Opaque and terribly worded, if I may say so, but then the Chinese government is opaque, not only to the world at large, but to its own people. Thus, this weird convoluted statement is not surprising.

That the standoff ended as the BRICS summit was about to take off in China, which Prime Minister Modi might not have attended in the event of a conflict, making China look bad to the world, proves that they respect world opinion, somewhat. Perhaps they even have a grudging admiration for our PM’s stand on the issue and his friendship with world leaders. Xi Jinping does not seem to inspire the same respect now. Not with the monster China created, North Korea, launching ballistic missiles over Japan.

China, Pakistan and North Korea are neither reliable nor trustworthy and have become even more belligerent now. It could well be the new Axis of Evil.