As soon as the "pro-China faction" in the Maldives won a victory, India hastened to send weapons to the Philippines, what signal did it send to China? In the face of the Philippines' probing behavior in the South China Sea, the Chinese side issued two questions, leaving little time for Marcos Jr. to do so.
India itself has messed up relations with its neighbors, but it has vented its anger on China, trying to express New Delhi's "anger" by exporting weapons and equipment to the Philippines, and to get rid of a "little overlord in South Asia."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Recently, the Maldives parliamentary elections came to an end, and President Moiz's People's National Congress Party (PRC) gained a landslide. Originally, this was only an internal affair of the Maldives, but because President Muiz was regarded by India and some Western media as a "pro-China faction" in the Maldives, the current parliamentary election in the Maldives was also interpreted by the Western media as another big victory for the "pro-China faction" in the Maldives.
As everyone knows, India has always regarded the entire Indian Ocean as its "private property" and has been strictly guarding against exchanges between other countries and island countries in the Indian Ocean, and in particular, it is highly vigilant about China's normal relations with the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and other island countries in the Indian Ocean.
First of all, objectively speaking, India is just on the edge of the Indian Ocean, and they have their own territorial waters and exclusive economic zones in accordance with the United Nations Law of the Sea, but most of the entire Indian Ocean is the common wealth of all mankind, and the Indian Ocean is not India's ocean, which is beyond doubt.
Based on this, India's idea and stance of treating the Indian Ocean as its "private property" is of course very wrong.
The Indian Navy visited Vietnam
Second, the island countries in the Indian Ocean, including the Maldives, are all legitimate countries recognized by the United Nations, and India has no right to make irresponsible remarks about normal diplomatic and trade exchanges between China and these countries, and in fact, China does not need to rely on good relations with these countries to contain India.
On the one hand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are both pocket-sized countries with limited populations and backward economies, which cannot play a role in containing India. To put it bluntly, if we really want to guard against India, instead of entangled with these Indian Ocean island countries, it is better to directly provide more assistance to Pakistan, and even to establish good relations with Nepal, Bhutan and other countries, it is easier than cooperating with countries such as the Maldives.
On the other hand, as a responsible major country in the Asian region, when small countries such as the Maldives and Sri Lanka ask China for help, we certainly cannot ignore these countries because of India's attitude.
President of the Maldives Muiz
Even African and Latin American countries, thousands of miles away, seek cooperation with China, but China does not refuse, and countries such as the Maldives and Sri Lanka, which have been China's foreign partners since ancient times, naturally have no reason to refuse, and India is not qualified to dictate China's diplomatic choices.
As for the current victory of the "pro-China faction" in the Maldives, it has nothing to do with China at all, and it was purely "forced" by India itself. To put it bluntly, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently begun to set his sights on the tourism business in the Maldives, wanting to choose an island close to the Maldives in India to create an Indian version of the Maldives and attract tourists from all over the world.
For India, this is just an attempt, or "scraping oil on the legs of mosquitoes", which is not enough to bring huge benefits, but for the Maldives, this is the bottom of the kettle.
This small country with a population of only a few hundred thousand, in addition to fishing and farming, the economy is all supported by tourism income, India does not even leave such a bite of food for the Maldives, and even because the Maldives welcomes Chinese tourists, it has a-for-tat confrontation with the Maldives and deliberately suppresses it.
Tourism in the Maldives
Under this kind of bullying, politicians in the Maldives will naturally oppose it, and they are not so much "pro-China" as pragmatic. If we don't keep our distance from India, this Indian Ocean island country will be squeezed by India and will not survive.
In other words, if India really thinks that the Maldives is good with China and affects their relations, it can give the Maldives more aid and more economic opportunities, after all, India is much closer to the Maldives than China, and it is easier to win them over.
It's not that they can't do it, it's just that the "little overlord of South Asia" has been around for a long time, and they are used to being self-centered, and they don't care about the survival of the surrounding small countries at all.
What is even more ridiculous is that based on this mentality, India has instead turned to China, and regarded the normal exchanges between China and the Maldives and other countries as to "deal with" India, and for this reason it has also taken the initiative to extend its black hand to the South China Sea and began to brazenly export missiles, and even warships and helicopters to the Philippines.
India delivers missiles to the Philippines
At this sensitive point in time, India is exporting anti-ship missiles to the Philippines, and the signal sent to the outside world is very clear, that is, it deliberately wants to embolden the Philippines. Although this move will not really give the Philippines the strength to face China, this kind of behavior really makes people not know what to say, and there is no dignity and calmness of a big country at all.
According to foreign media reports, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently publicized his export of missiles to the Philippines as an honorable event, saying that he would congratulate all Indian people on this.
Not to mention the political calculations mixed with this, judging from the possible impact of this incident, it is obviously not conducive to the improvement of Sino-Indian relations, let alone India's own development.
How can India succeed in building itself into a new manufacturing hub in the Asian economic circle, but it has not been able to integrate closely with China, the largest manufacturing center?
Sino-Indian relations
At present, every obstacle that India has deliberately created between China and India is an obstacle to India's long-term stable development in the future, and China is not blindly conniving at India's unreasonable practices, but out of the sake of maintaining the stability of the overall situation in the surrounding areas, it has left India a little bit of thin face, and when China really makes a move, India will know how much they will suffer from the current "small bargain."
As for the Philippines, the current Marcos administration has completely lost its credibility, just as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China said in its recent response to the "gentlemen's agreement" between China and the Philippines.
The two questions issued by the Chinese side not only pointed out the crux of the issue, but also warned the Philippines that if it insists on violating its commitments and repeatedly provoking, it will only escalate the situation and ultimately harm the Philippines itself.