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12 perspectives on the China-India border dispute in Doklam
Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a standoff in a desolate region of the Himalayas that is also claimed by India’s ally Bhutan.
As the protracted border row between the two Asian giants rumbles on, we take a look at some perspectives on the dispute.
1. When will China and India start talking about the 1962 war honestly?
Both countries have been peddling a simplistic narrative of the last war, each blaming the other. Debasish Roy Chowdhury asks: is it any surprise there’s so much loose talk of a new one?
2. After all that embracing, has US left India out in the cold over standoff with China?
The United States, India’s “natural ally”, has maintained a baffling silence on the Doklam dispute, writes Sumit Ganguly.
3. Why tiny Bhutan remains the wild card in China’s border stand-off with India
Ankit Panda writes that each choice Bhutan makes during the protracted China-India dispute could chart its place in Asia for decades to come.
4. Imagine what China and India can do together
The two Asian powers share a common cause on several fronts, from globalisation to climate change. Both would be wise to focus on cooperation instead of military brinkmanship, says Shashi Tharoor.
5. Doklam dispute shows India must pick its battles, as China seeks to be the centre of the world
Shyam Saran says that China’s Doklam stance aims to weaken the regional alliance between India and Bhutan.
6. Why is China so keen to alienate half a billion young Indians with no memories of the war?
Half of India’s population is under 26. Whatever the stakes on the remote Himalayan slopes, they are likely to carry an imprint of China as an adversary well into the rest of their lives. Nitin Pai asks: how does that help China?
7. India is running out of time in Doklam dispute with China
Zhou Bo says the stakes are high for both India and China, but New Delhi’s moral disadvantages in the issue - including its stance towards Bhutan, a sovereign state - weaken its position.
8. India’s got itself into a fine mess in Doklam. It’s time to get out and let China and Bhutan work it out
India is militarily engaging a state actor from the soil of a third country over a piece of land its partner country does not even control. Not even the mighty US does that, says Sourabh Gupta.
9. Bhutan can solve its border problem with China – if India lets it
The only surviving Tibetan Buddhist kingdom is caught between a rock and a hard place, seemingly willing to negotiate its longstanding territorial claims with Beijing but feeling the heat from an overbearing New Delhi, writes Tsering Shakya.
10. How India border stand-off gives China a chance to burnish its global image
Jerome A. Cohen and Peter A. Dutton call on Beijing and New Delhi to seek impartial arbitration to resolve their problem. After its heavy-handedness in the South China Sea, the latest row offers China a fresh chance to show respect for international law.
11. This standoff is China telling India to accept changing realities
John Garver writes: as technology kills the distance between the two Asian giants, the current Himalayan standoff is Beijing’s way of warning New Delhi not to trample too egregiously on China’s interests, or else...
12. This is India’s China war, Round Two
The absurd myth of an ‘unprovoked Chinese aggression’ in 1962 has fermented in India a persistent longing for revenge, says Neville Maxwell.
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