Time for unity in the face of Chinese incursions

Could China be trying to cut India to size, unhappy with the attention and importance showered on India, especially on Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

- Surendra Kumar

China’s unprovoked incursion at Yangtse in Arunachal Pradesh on 9 December 2022, ostensibly to change the exiting status quo on the ground, seems a replication of its incursion in Galwan valley in June 2020, with the difference being that both sides have suffered injuries this time, but not fatalities. Understandably, we are outraged and seething with anger. As always, the incident has caused an avalanche of commentaries conjecturing about the reasons on why China did what it did, and offering a plethora of advice on how to deal with China.

How exasperating, at times, such unsolicited advice from those who aren’t aware of ground realities could be was referred to by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during his recent conversation with Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment.

The widely aired views of the self-proclaimed strategic thinkers—civilian and military—both in the print and the electronic media is that the Chinese leadership resorted to the incursion at Yangtse to divert attention from People’s Republic of China’s increasing internal turmoil. The PRC has been rattled by widespread angry protests against Xi Jinping’s Zero Covid policy, leading to some daringly asking Xi Jinping to step down. Ironically, while the world is beginning to see the tail of the infection, Covid is surging in China, which was, until recently, touting its handling of the pandemic as better than the rest of the world. China’s economy having witnessed double digit growth for nearly two decades, was shaken by Donald Trump’s tariff war and was further devastated by Covid. Worryingly, this year, it is tipped to plummet to 2.5% or worse.