【Text/Observer Network Columnist Lin Minwang】
Recently, New Delhi has begun to stir on the border again.
From October 14 to 31, India and the United States will hold the annual Joint Army Exercise "Yudh Abhyas" in the Auli region of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. In the past, India held the "preparation for war" in Rajasthan or Northern Arkand, but this exercise was "deliberately" held less than 100 kilometers away from the Line of Actual Control on the China-India border.
Meanwhile, since August 8, Indo-U.S. special forces have also conducted a 21-day Vajra Prahar joint combat exercise in the southern foothills of the Himalayas in the Indian state of Himachal Prahar. The two exercises are aimed at enhancing military interoperability between India and the United States, with the choice of areas close to the Sino-Indian border, with tactical training targets aimed directly at China.
Considering the military tension in the east of China caused by Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan, India's choice of this opportunity to conduct the India-US joint military exercise also seems to remind China of the dilemma of "two-front operation".
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, India and the United States have come closer and closer on the road of joint "china control". The United States seeks to "print China," while India throws in its favor and constantly wins the strategic leverage for itself to play the "China card." At the same time, India's "fox and tiger power" has drawn the United States and its allies to support its tough stance on China.
In 2020, the illegal crossing of the line by Indian troops led to a confrontation between China and India. After the outbreak of the incident, India initially insisted that "China and India have the ability and wisdom to solve each other's problems" and disguisedly refused to involve the United States in the turmoil. However, with the intensification of Sino-US strategic competition, New Delhi has also adjusted its thinking, no longer shyly answering questions on the conspiracy between India and the United States, and its intention to use the United States to suppress China has become increasingly apparent.
After encountering difficulties in encroaching on China's territory, India turned to other neighbors to tighten its control and encroachment on the territory at the border between China and India and the three countries of a third country. In 2017, india, citing so-called "security concerns," unreasonably opposed China's construction of roads on our territory at the junction of China-India-Bhutan, and illegally crossed the border into the Chinese side, triggering a doklam standoff. However, in recent years, India has pursued a kind of "occupy if it can occupy it" and "should grab it as much as possible" in the Kalapani region at the junction of the three countries of China-India-Nepal, which has aroused strong opposition from the Nepalese side.
The Kalapani region, near the china-India-Bhutan border, is a traditionally disputed area of India and Nepal.
In May 2019, India challenged the status quo of actual control and tried to build an 80-kilometer-long road across these disputed areas to our Qiangla Pass, for which Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh attended the unveiling ceremony with a high profile, triggering domestic disputes in India and Nepal. Since then, India's "map opening" in November 2019 has nakedly included the disputed areas into India's territory. Not to be outdone, in response, in May 2020 Nepal released a new version of the "political map", which also included the disputed areas in Nepal, and the Nepalese parliament voted to confirm the new version of the map.
Despite strong opposition from Nepal, India is still "going its own way". Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated in a mass rally speech in Uttarakhand in December 2021 that the road through the disputed area would continue to be built. Moreover, India has recently strengthened its military presence in Kalapani more directly, building a large number of military installations and increasing the deployment of troops.
India has aggressively expanded its military facilities in the disputed nepal-India zone
I found pictures of India's massive expansion of military facilities in Kalapani on the Internet, and I believe that Nepalese scholars and media will soon pay attention to this change.
In doing so, India undoubtedly kills "two birds with one stone". On the one hand, it is the actual military control that forces Nepal to accept the reality of being occupied by Force by India. On the other hand, strengthening the deployment of military forces is also a military deterrent against China on the other side of the border line.
The Nepalese foreign minister's recent visit to China has also attracted attention
Nepalese media remain silent on India's efforts to step up its military presence in the disputed areas, stemming in part from the deupa government's pro-India diplomacy and still fantasizing about "peace of mind." However, China has reason to be highly vigilant against This approach by India.
During the Sino-Indian Border War in 1962, India sent a large number of troops into Sikkim to protect Sikkim, but after that, it did not leave, and finally laid an ambush for India's annexation of Sikkim. India's current dominance over the dispute with Nepal's Kalapani is also due to the consequences of Nepal's allowing Indian troops to move in after 1962.
For the small countries in South Asia, it is really the so-called "easy to ask God to send God is difficult." In contrast, in 1962, India also spread rumors that China was going to "invade" Bhutan and proposed to send Indian troops to Bhutan to protect it, and Bhutan rejected India's "good intentions" and thus maintained its independence and sovereignty to this day.
India's eagerness to move on the border is also evident in the construction of border infrastructure.
Since the infrastructure of the border areas has a strong military function, it can strengthen the delivery capacity and speed of military forces, which naturally helps to strengthen the actual control of the border areas. The 2020 Galwan conflict was mainly caused by India's seizure of the DSBDBO (Durbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg Oldi) highway to further strengthen the encroachment on our actual control line.
Since 2017, in India's annual budget, the budget for infrastructure construction such as roads and bridges in border areas has doubled year by year, clearly showing a posture of competing with China in infrastructure construction. On the other hand, India claims that in order to resist the construction of China's border villages, It has also invested heavily in the 2022 budget to carry out the construction of so-called "vibrant frontier" well-off villages.
Finally, India continues to spread rumors about the sino-Indian border standoff. In order to maintain the so-called "self-dignity", India, from high-level politicians and military generals to media journalists, collectively "wrote and directed" the "story" about the entire Galwan conflict. From the Indian military's initial assertion that the Chinese side suffered more casualties than India, to the "conclusive" confirmation that the number of Casualties on the Chinese side was 108. So much so that when the Chinese government announced the casualties of the Galwan conflict, the Indian media and people were very psychologically unable to stand it, and collectively insisted that this was China's psychological war with India.
Even more outrageous is the recent revelation of a "fact" of the conflict in the Galwan Valley, in particular "telling" the story of how an Indian military doctor risked his life to rescue a Chinese soldier who was brutally murdered by a Chinese soldier, in particular, in a new book, India's Most Fearless 3. In addition to exposing the bottom line of Indian media personalities, such a large-scale public opinion fraud also shows that the anti-China "psychological needs" of Indian public opinion circles have caused many people to lose their basic ability to discern.
On August 10, Indian media people sensationalized the so-called secret. Image courtesy of Hindustan Times
For China, the fight against public opinion on the border situation cannot be stopped.
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