WASHINGTON, INDIA, 30 MAY, 2020 (GPN): Tensions between China and India over their Himalayan border have escalated, with China accused of moving thousands of troops into disputed territory and expanding a military airbase in the region.

Thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops are reported to have moved into sensitive areas along the eastern Ladakh border, setting up tents and stationing vehicles and heavy machinery in what India considers to be its territory.

In response, the Indian army has moved several battalions from an infantry division usually based in the Ladakh city of Leh to “operational alert areas” along the border, and reinforcement troops have been brought in.

According to satellite footage there has been large-scale construction work at a Chinese military airbase less than 120 miles from the border in recent weeks, including the building of a new runway suitable for warplanes.

On Tuesday India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, held a meeting with his national security adviser, Ajit Doval, plus his chief of defence staff and three security chiefs to discuss “bolstering India’s military preparedness to deal with external security challenges”.

On Wednesday Donald Trump waded into the heightened standoff, claiming that he had “informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute”.

 

China’s new “muscular” policy will have an impact on its ties with India and other nations, a senior US diplomat has said, underlining that the world is finally recognising that Beijing is “pushing” a form of “problematic” governance.

The US is currently involved in a tense showdown with China on the issue of trade, the origins of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Beijing’s new security crackdown in Hong Kong and the communist nation’s aggressive military moves in the disputed South China Sea.

The actions China is taking “are going to have impact, and not just in – across the Straits”, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell told reporters at a news conference.

“It’s going to have impact in Southeast Asia, it’s going to have impact with its neighbour India, and others. This newly muscular and aggressive approach is going to make the defence minister’s job a lot harder,” he said.

Mr Stiwell was responding to a question on the statement made by the Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe over the weekend that the China-US strategic confrontation has entered “a period of high risk” and “we must strengthen our fighting spirit… and use fighting to promote stability”.

Mr Fenghe’s remarks came amid rising tensions between China and the US, and souring ties between Beijing and Taipei.

China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam claim parts of it.

Mr Stilwell said the world is finally recognising that China is “pushing” a form of government that “many only now are beginning to recognise as problematic”.

“This most recent step from the National People’s Congress in walking away from its obligations with respect to Hong Kong only demonstrates that more clearly,” he said.

China on Friday last introduced the draft of a controversial national security law in Hong Kong in its Parliament to tighten Beijing’s control over the former British colony, in what could be the biggest blow to the territory’s autonomy and personal freedoms since 1997 when it came under Chinese rule.

Hong Kong, an economic powerhouse, is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. It has observed a “one country, two systems” policy since Britain returned sovereignty to China on July 1, 1997, which has allowed it certain freedoms the rest of China does not have.

The way they’ve done that is they are the Chinese Communist Party, but they know what that communist word – the baggage it brings, and so you hear them speaking a lot about socialism with Chinese characteristics. It just sounds nicer. But we need to get past the nice language and face what we’re up against,” Mr Stilwell said.

“This is an authoritarian system. It prefers to negotiate with others on a position of strength using a might makes right stance both domestically with its own people and internationally, as I mentioned before, with economic levers and other things,” he added.

The diplomat said the recent events have shown that Beijing seeks more global prominence and they want that to go with their newfound wealth and economic help that they’ve been using.

“In the process, though, they’ve gained additional scrutiny,” he said.

In October 2017, the 19th Party Congress Work Report said China will move closer to the centre of the global stage. This process has moved their authoritarian system closer to the limelight as well, where many now have come to see what Xi Jinping’s, quote, governance idea looks like, and increasingly people don’t really like what they’re seeing, Mr Stilwell said.

“So we’re all faced with an authoritarian government that we thought had been relegated to history,” he said.

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