Author | Yan Chixia
Recently, the Indian media published a particularly popular article about China, called "Understanding China's Strength".
It specifically mentions that in the past 30 years, in addition to hosting the Olympic Games, China has also hosted three Asian Games, namely the Beijing Asian Games, the Guangzhou Asian Games and the Hangzhou Asian Games.
By contrast, India has simply not been able to host an international event of this magnitude for nearly 40 years, most recently hosting the Commonwealth Games on a fairly modest scale in 2010.
The main reason is that almost no city in India now has the infrastructure to host an international sporting event on the scale of the Asian Games, let alone the Olympics.
Although India has always regarded China as its main competitor, China was able to host an international event of the scale of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. But even now, 16 years later, India is still unable to host the Olympics.
However, despite the fact that nearly 600 million people in India are malnourished and cannot eat three meals, they are expanding outward at every turn, building overseas military bases everywhere.
At its peak, India has troops stationed in six countries and dozens of military bases overseas.
Most of these countries are island states in the Indian Ocean, which together form a key shipping lane for India, and India has been forcibly interfering in the internal affairs of these countries.
India's ultimate goal is to turn the entire Indian Ocean into its own backyard by controlling these island countries in the Indian Ocean.
But if you want to support this strategy, you must have a strong economic foundation, and if you can't bring economic development to other countries, why should people let you garrison troops?
No, India has recently broken its defenses, and the Maldives, which has always been regarded as its own backyard, actually wants to expel the Indian garrison. What India can't accept the most is that the relationship between the Maldives and China has grown by leaps and bounds.
After all, in India's mind, China has always been its main adversary. In the eyes of India, the Maldives' independent diplomatic behavior has become a hole for China. Under the advantages of the other, India directly broke the defense.
Everyone will be familiar with the Maldives, which is a tourist destination made up of thousands of islands and a population of only a few hundred thousand.
The history of India's military presence in the Maldives dates back to 1988, when India helped President President Ma quell a coup d'état and began its military station.
Over the years, India has been using the Maldives as its backyard and has been strengthening its military presence. India has built a number of military bases here, not only with troops, but also with large coast guard radars.
Therefore, the Maldives has long pursued a policy of "India first" at home, and its own domestic and foreign affairs have been strongly interfered by India.
Over time, India's actions were gradually resisted by the Maldivian population, and the newly inaugurated President Muiz promised to demand that India withdraw its troops during the general election.
The day after Muiz was sworn in, he formally demanded that India withdraw its troops from the Maldives, and under constant pressure, India finally agreed to the withdrawal.
At that time, all the mainstream media in India reported that the new Maldives government's foreign policy would "turn to China", to which Mouiz made it clear: We are not against any country, nor are we close to any country, and my government will pursue a "pro-Maldives policy".
What made India's defense even more broken was that at the invitation of China, a high-level delegation led by Maldivian President Moiz and his wife arrived in China on January 8 for a state visit.
This is Muiz's first state visit to a foreign country since he became president, and the first foreign head of state to be invited to visit China in 2024.
The 46-year-old was Minister of Housing and Infrastructure from 2012 to 2018 and was elected Mayor of the capital Male in 2021. Before he was elected, he visited China many times, and in the eyes of India, Muiz was a real "pro-China faction".
After the election of the President of the Maldives, India has been the first place to visit, which is a recognition of India's influence. But Muiz broke with that tradition and became the first Maldivian president to visit China before visiting India.
The reception for this state visit was very formal and arranged according to the highest diplomatic protocols. There are many red carpets, parade honor guards, 21-gun salutes, etc.
On the afternoon of January 10, the heads of state of China and Malaysia held talks at the Great Hall of the People, and the two heads of state announced that they would upgrade China-Malaysia relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.
Friends who often watch the news know that in diplomacy, China has many types of "partners". For example, partners, full partners, strategic partners, and comprehensive strategic partners, etc.
As long as the word "strategic" appears in these partnerships, it means that the level of cooperation is higher, and there is consistency in the whole, the overall situation, and the core interests.
We have a particularly good relationship, such as Pakistan, which is an "all-weather strategic partner" with us.
The most special is Russia, which is known as the "China-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination in the New Era".
After the Maldives and India began to estrange, the comprehensive escalation of China-Maldives relations is like a stab in the heart of India.
Moiz also said China is one of the Maldives' "closest allies and development partners."
In fact, China already has a lot of influence in the Maldives, not only helping to expand the Velana International Airport in Malé, but also building the Malaysia-China Friendship Bridge.
Over the years, the Maldives has benefited greatly from the Belt and Road Initiative.
Since 2010, China has been the largest source of international tourists to Maldives for 10 consecutive years, bringing more than 30% growth to the Maldives tourism industry, and the agreement between China and Maldives on mutual visa exemption came into effect in February this year.
China's diplomacy is truly practicing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, treating all sovereign countries as equals, regardless of their size, respecting their sovereignty, and not interfering in their internal affairs or targeting any third party.
This is the difference between us and India, in the future, China will build a port in the Maldives, and in the future, China's trade transit point in the Indian Ocean will be the Maldives.
In this way, the first thing Maldivian President Muiz did after taking office was to drive out the Indian garrison, which was originally to remove obstacles to Sino-Maldivian cooperation.
India has unspeakable bitterness in its heart at this time, and many years of operation have been in vain, starting with the expulsion of Indian troops from the Maldives, and other Indian overseas military bases have also begun to be in jeopardy.
In the final analysis, India just thinks too much, but its strength does not allow it. Without the fate of the United States, they prefer to follow the example of the United States to engage in overseas expansion, and the result is that the bamboo basket is empty.
After all, India has not figured out how to develop relations with its neighbors on land.
For example, there has been hostility with Pakistan, friction with Nepal every once in a while, and disputes with Bangladesh.
In this regard, Ah San might as well look at what the big countries in the East are doing.
In the past year, China has upgraded its relationship with 17 countries, a number not seen in the previous decade.
There is no life of a big country, but there is a disease of a big country, this is the most fundamental problem of India!