China continues to adopt its antagonistic postures against India in newer and multiple levels. The China apologists in India who continue to espouse that China is peacefully disposed towards India need to discard their myopic perceptions and wake up to the staring reality that China is no friend of India and with India emerging as a more prominent player in global affairs, China would be prone to greater hostility towards India. Regular readers of this Column would recall that China’s propensity to continue in anti-Indian postures stands continuously reflected in this Column as the references below would indicate:

• “China Re asserts Antagonistic Postures Towards India”
   (4 August 2007)
• “China is No Friend of India” (30 March 2008)

The latest manifestation of Chinese hostility towards India is the positioning of over 12,000 Chinese troops in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and an increasing involvement in creation of infrastructure in what China itself proclaims as disputed territory. While the ostensible reasons cited by China and Pakistan are said to be economic development of this Pakistan neglected region, the reality is that the driving force behind this new China-Pakistan initiative is overwhelmingly strategic.

Pakistan always is engaged in activities that strategically embarrass India and does not publicly espouse peaceful intentions. China on the other hand constantly professes that it is sincerely interested in peaceful relations with India. So what comes to the fore is that China indulges in double standards when it comes to India. 

China’s peaceful rhetoric in relation to India is not matched by its demonstrated performance of anti-Indian postures in South Asia. Surveying China’s buildup of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and missiles arsenal and enlarging the military hardware inventories of Pakistan Armed Forces to its attempts to create military client states in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal the inescapable conclusion that emerges is that China is involved in adversarial postures against India.

The next logical question that arises is that if that be so, what notice has the Government of India taken of the Chinese menace and what ripostes has the Indian Government adopted to restrain China from an uninterrupted continuance of activities deemed prejudicial to India’s national security?

The Indian Government seems to have taken note of China’s latest involvement and presence in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir going by a number of Cabinet Committee on Security meetings that have taken place in the last few days. The Defence Minister has visited Ladakh to gain first hand knowledge of India’s defence postures in Ladakh and what more needs to be done 

The Indian Government however does not seem to have initiated any ripostes against China to force it to think twice before embarking on its involvement in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir which is part of the princely State of Kashmir which constitutionally acceded to India in 1947 and was forcibly occupied by the Pakistan Army in the interim period between August 1947 and October 1947.

One is not indulging in war-mongering as India’s China-apologists would like to counteract. All that one is advocating is that when it comes to China, India needs to match China’s antagonistic moves against India with politically matching antagonistic moves against China on its peripheries.