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| Edited By: DNA |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 13, 2019, 07:00 AM IST
What was until recently a not-so-well-guarded secret is now out in the open. It has often been speculated that in the event of an India-Pakistan war, China could intervene on behalf of its all-weather ally.
Adding grist to the mill have been periodic statements by top Indian military generals, who have wisely speculated on a two-front war — after all, being forewarned is to be forearmed. Yet, in India’s two major engagements with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, when military planners kept a hawk-like eye on the northern front, nothing moved.
China did not even mass troops on the 4,000-km-plus Line of Actual Control (LAC), while the Indian Army was engaged on its western borders. Knowledgeable experts have, however, always held that China is too big a country to bother with anyone else’s war, even if it a close ally like Pakistan.
Confirmation of this thesis has now come from the dragon itself. According to a string of editorials in newspapers controlled by the Communist Party of China after the recent India-Pakistan standoff, Beijing has said it will not takes sides in a confrontation between the two South Asian neighbours.
The headline of an op-ed in China’s leading daily, State-run Global Times, declared simply that “China will not pick sides in India-Pakistan disputes”, a categorical assertion of its intentions. It went further, literally pouring cold water on Pakistani intentions.
“Although China supported Pakistan in alleviating poverty and wiping out terrorism, Beijing is not an enemy of New Delhi...,” the editorial said. This does not, of course, mean that China has dropped its strategic intent. What it means is that there is a shift in Beijing’s tone after the Balakot air strikes and the subsequent Pakistani attempt at retaliation.
For China, economics has always reigned paramount, and India is the jewel which is not willing to become part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) crown. So it could also be the olive branch to keep India on its side.
A significant part of this diplomatic outreach has to be placed at the doorstep of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is one Indian leader who has visited China more than any other. Realising that China is the country which will determine the scope of politics and diplomacy in the years ahead, Modi has been a frequent visitor to Beijing, first as chief minister of Gujarat and then as Prime Minister.
In doing so, he has put China on the same pedestal as US: Modi has visited both countries five times during his tenure as PM. Such networking has helped in improving bilateral ties between the two Asian giants, giving China a better insight into India’s aspirations, that has gone a long way in assuaging ties between the two countries.
While it is always safe to err on the side of caution, it is interesting to note that Chinese editorials, have of late, stressed on the fact that the two countries may be competitors, but that does not make them enemies. Pakistan could not be too amused with such positioning from its all-weather friend.
