Is Galwan a Turning Point in Beijing’s Behavior for South Asia?

 India still wants to intact grip around the region not only for itself but for strategic partner USA. In the meantime, Galwan tussle is marking the new turn of anti-Indian diplomacy. How India manages the situation!

The strategic grip of China is looking to increase slowly around the South Asian region for its long-term business and security interest. The diplomacy of this region is positively or negatively running around the mood of Beijing. The traditional concept of impenetrable Himalaya range is continuously going to be outdated by the Trans -Himalayan link projects and other activities of China. In this change, the Himalaya is losing its image of a Sentinel of the north for the Indian peninsula.

 

Since the Galwan border confrontation of India, Beijing is showing its hostility to weak the activities of America supporting the anti-China block in the region. Beijing is already getting involved in the South China Sea in the first front but latter days it eyeing differently toward the South Asian region as a second important front. In South Asian periphery Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, and Nepal are already committed to being strategic partners of China but it wants to create additional pressure on the region. Perhaps the Galwan incident is marking as an aggressive turning point of the Chinese mood for the region. 

                                       

                      The Tibet issue and Sikkim

 

What is the main cause to provoke China to flirt on south Asia? The answer is clear that Beijing wants to be safe from the south across Himalaya because the northern part of Himalaya is the autonomous Tibet that is sensitive to Beijing. In 1971 America was secretly involved in providing training, arms, and other logistics to promote free Tibet activist Khampa rebels in northern Nepal border. The Royal Nepal Army suppressed the rebellion and shoots the Khampa commander Wangdi near Lipulike on the request of China. Exiled Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama still is living the asylum in India and he runs a free Tibetan government with the support of western countries.

 

After the recent Galwan clash, India is under Washington’s pressure to formally support free Tibet issues against China. China also was raising the issue of annexation of Sikkim in India for a long time in the past but they both left the issue of Sikkim and Tibet under a gentle understanding. China formally did not raise the issue of free Sikkim after 2003 means Beijing also recognized the annexation of Sikkim in India for the Indian support of Tibet as part of China.  Although the formal organ of the Chinese Communist party Global Times in 2018, warned India to not play the card of Dalai Lama. It further wrote, if so, China also will be back from the stand on Sikkim. China often accuses India to continue the legacy of colonial expansionism in small neighboring countries. It means china wants to draw the attention of the other small neighboring countries of India in the peninsula.

 

After the Galwan clash, India's propaganda mechanism is raising the voice in favor of free Tibet and lunching a “Chinese goods boycott” to hurt Beijing.  

         

 Anti-China camp is well known about three weak points of Beijing are Tibet, Hong Kong, and Uigur ethnic problems to hurt Beijing. So China is always taking it sensitively for national integrity.

              Border issue of Bhutan and India

 

India and China share about 4000 km is not a demarked border between them. They have not arrived to consent in the fixed borderline because they have their different claims on the borderline. A war fought on the issue between them in 1962, and China occupies a large part of India's claimed land in the northern border. Galwan is the latest face of the border dispute between these two Asian giants.

 

 After the back from the confronting line, according to a bilateral understanding on Galwan, India is accusing China of starting to forward in the eastern border of Arunachal Pradesh. Moreover, China is continually eyeing to touch China – Bhutan long-running border disputed in two areas also is a headache for India. Delhi is under massive pressure to invest billions of dollars to promote its armed capacity in changing situations for national security. That is why India is one of the major arms importers of the world. Recently India bought five fighters Rafale from France to avoid the threat of China.

 

This time, the policy of China is to involve India in the border- tussle based on to break the USA –India strategic partnership against China. However, India is well known that Trump’s USA is not dependable because there are still some hurdles with Washington, the other side, it might be at risk of losing some trustful international friends.

 

Being in more than three-decade-long strong business relations Delhi and Beijing were never sincere to resolve the differences of the border. This hanging sword of unsolved border disputes might fatal for the relatively weaker country between them. China is continuously trying to engage India in border issues this time for the cost of Delhi’s strategic tie with Washington. Beijing knows the strong unity of India and the USA might creat the obstacles to the plans of China.

 

Bhutan is like a protectorate kingdom of India since the colonial period. Bhutan also has a long-running rift on borders with China. Recently China is repeatedly proposing a package deal to Bhutan on the border issue. In this proposal, China is ready to leave its claim on Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary for the Doklam area. Sakteng and Doklam both are strategic points for India too. According to the source, Bhutan is in the pressure of Beijing’s approach. Ultimately China anyhow wants to play the game to target India.

                             Strategy to siege India

 

 Recently on 22 July Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had a rear talk for bilateral relations over the phone, the event was suspect for the Indian diplomatic circle. India felt the smell of China in the conversation between two Prime Ministers. Bangladesh cautiously disclosed that the talk was related to food situation and COVID 19 pandemic, but Pakistan said that the conversation was on Kashmir too. Likewise, the Foreign Ministers of Nepal, Afghanistan, China, and Pakistan were in a virtual talk a few days ago is also not good news for India, this means, India still wants its neighboring countries to remain in its grip but it is seemingly not possible.

 

It shows that the circumstance in south Asia is going to be something new. India is neglecting a long-running South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to isolate Pakistan. India is promoting another Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in the place of SAARC. It is an articulation that a forum except India is raising around the Indian peninsula in favor of China. After the Galwan face up between India and China is speedily pushing the situation towards a new power - shape in the region.