Delhi and Beijing play tit for tat along Himalaya's disputed border
India responds to Chinese moves by building infrastructure on their side of the border. China replicates and adapts military tactics already used with Taiwan and in the South China Sea. Delhi challenges Beijing with joint military exercises with the US less than 100 km from crisis zones.
Rome (AsiaNews) – The territorial dispute between India and China along their Himalayan border has become a game of tit for tat. Indian media report Delhi has accelerated the construction of new infrastructure near the border that can serve military purposes.
Beijing has been doing the same for some time. On July 1, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced the construction of two new highways that worry the Indians in prospect: one will connect Tibet with neighbouring Xinjiang on the provisional border with India; the other will connect Xinjiang with the Sino-Pakistani border. The two projects are part of a national plan to build 461,000 kilometres of highways and motorways by 2035.
The two countries have deployed 50,000-60,000 troops and an increasing amount of heavy weaponry on their side of the border, which is the most militarised in the world after the Russian-Ukrainian border.
In June 2020, Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan valley between Indian Ladakh and Chinese Aksai Chin: 20 Indian soldiers died; the number of Chinese casualties is still unknown.
China and India share a 3,488-kilometre border in the Himalayas, over which they fought a brief but bloody conflict in 1962. Delhi claims large parts of Aksai Chin (which the Chinese took from Pakistan); Beijing claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
At least 16 rounds of talks between the two sides have failed to resolve the stalemate. The failure of the talks is due to the Chinese refusal to withdraw from the Hot Springs area in eastern Ladakh, while Beijing accuses Delhi of not wanting to reduce its troops in the Depsang Plains.
According to Delhi, the Chinese Air Force (PLAAF) conducts repeated air raids on the 'friction' areas. In all likelihood, along the Himalayan frontier, China is replicating and adapting military tactics already used in other chessboards.
If the civilian-military outposts built in Tibet and Xinjiang are reminiscent of those built by China on the disputed islets and atolls of the South China Sea, the PLAAF is putting Delhi's defences to the test with repeated air and helicopter sorties close to Indian territory – a tactic also used with Taiwan.
There is more: the Chinese might try to deceive their Indian counterparts with manoeuvres that help disguise a real attack in the future.
Indian General Vinod Bhatia explained to AsiaNews that India's "mirror deployment" prevented a military escalation after the clashes in the Galwan Valley. According to the retired military officer, a former director-general of Delhi's military operations, India's "deterrence" has been successful so far because his country has been able to confront China from a position of relative strength.
Bathia also believes that the upcoming deployment near the border with China of the S-400 air and missile defence system, purchased from Russia, will be a game-changer and increase India's ability to counter Chinese air raids.
The Indian general is convinced that a conflict in the Himalayas is not in China's interest because Beijing is focused on the great-power competition with the US. However, the Sino-US confrontation is being taken to the Himalayan peaks: from 18 to 31 October, Indian and US troops will conduct drills in Uttarakhand, less than 100 km from the disputed border between Delhi and Beijing.
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