By Liu Xiaoxue
As the border standoff between China and India drags on into the harsh winter, there has been no shortage of media reports about the predicament faced by the Indian side, such as insufficient funds and technology support for border troops amid the coronavirus crisis. Although India was reported to have transported a large volume of military materials to the border, it’s still questionable whether the necessary winter protection can be secured for its border troops.
Following some Western media outlets’ hype about an arms race between the two Asian powers, some Indian scholars, media outlets and politicians have recently continued to play up the tough-on-China rhetoric.
Obviously, this hype runs in the opposite direction to efforts both sides made to cool border tensions. It won’t help border troops complete disengagement but will expand the contradiction between the two countries into a wider sphere and increase the complexity of the problem.
The dangerous trend has increased the risk and speculative nature of India’s foreign strategic decision-making, posing a potential threat to regional security and stability. While it’s not hard to imagine the difficult situation of the border standoff at an altitude of 4,000 meters during the winter, with an economy only around 20 percent of China’s, the Indian side is obviously under more pressure.
Given severe economic shocks and high fiscal pressures, if India insists on choosing to confront China, it will bear greater fiscal pressure, especially as the economy has been severely hit by the pandemic, and it is using its limited wealth in the wrong places. India needs to use every means possible to achieve economic recovery, and its foreign policy should aim at creating a stable environment for peaceful development. On the contrary, continued confrontation or even an arms race will be clearly detrimental to both China and India, especially India. At present, India’s deficit remains high, unable to meet government goals, and the economy is still shrinking without any sign of a rebound.
New Delhi should realize that, in the long run, continued confrontation will inevitably cause the two countries to miss precious opportunities for common development and growth.
Earlier, Liu Zongyi’s report says that China’s plan to build a large hydropower project on the Yarlung Zangbo River has raised concerns in India over “potential political and ecological threats” as the river intersects Southwest China, India and Bangladesh.
Some Indian experts and media outlets have raised concerns that Chinese activities in the upstream regions may impact downstream Indian interests. Some are even concerned that China will use the hydroelectric project as a tool to promote a political strategy in the region, with their border conflict as the backdrop, to potentially restrict India’s right to utilize downstream water resources.
On the issue of cross-border water source development, Indian experts and media commentators have been highly vocal. For example, Indian geostrategist Brahma Chellaney has been pushing the issue for many years. It’s clear that India’s position contains an inherent double standard. While India has become accustomed to using water resource issues to crack down on downstream countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh, its baseless attacks against China’s planned hydro-project represent nothing but “gauging the heart of others with own mean measure.”
Under a framework supported by the World Bank and others, India and Pakistan signed a water sharing treaty following protracted negotiations, however there are still disputes between the two sides in the development and utilization of their water resources.
India has consistently used this issue as a hostage against Pakistan, and it is unsurprising that when it comes to China, Indian is acting abnormally. .
The reality is that China’s water resource development along the Yarlung Zangbo River have already put off for years due to India’s protests. In particular in terms of hydropower development, the Yarlung Zangbo River can generate the largest amount of power from the section closest to the border. The hydropower station is planned to be constructed where it can generate the largest amount of electricity, and is an important project for China to achieve its 2060 carbon neutral goal.
–The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
