U.S. Real-Time Intel Helps India Deal China A Defeat
In December 2022 I wrote a column titled "India and China Clash on The Roof of the World."
The Himalayan terrain and history where the incident that occurred Dec. 9, 2022, is obscure and complex. However, conflict between Asia's two giants has global significance. The clash rated headlines throughout east Asia and the Pacific -- headlines from Japan to Pakistan to Indonesia and Australia.
Dec. 9 details: Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed on an icy slope along the mountain border between Chinese-occupied Tibet and India's northeastern Arunachal Pradesh state.
Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950. That invasion was the predicate to the 1962 Sino-Indian War, which China launched and won.
Since 1962, Chinese and Indian soldiers have killed and injured one another in skirmishes over the LAC, with China usually besting India.
Yet Dec. 9's hand-to-hand scuffle ended with a Chinese setback.
On March 20, 2023, U.S. News and World Report published an article that explains China's strategic loss of face.
Before discussing the article, here's the necessary background. In 2007, Indian, Japanese, American and Australian diplomats held an informal meeting. Japan said all four nations regarded China as a disruptive actor in the world.
The result of that informal meeting marked the beginning of the Quad -- the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.
Four of the planet's most powerful democracies form the Quad. What brings them together? Beijing's belligerent behavior. India in an anti-China alliance presents Beijing clique a 3,800-kilometer-long strategic problem -- a land war with an Asian power that by 2030 could have more people than China.
...continued
Copyright 2023 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
