My Take | The one way Beijing and New Delhi could resolve border issues
- Reciprocal recognition of ‘one China’ and ‘one India’ would also work greatly in Beijing’s favour against Washington’s new cold war in the Asia-Pacific
Sixty years ago, communist China fought the last war that it unequivocally won. (In the 1979 war between Vietnam and China, both sides claimed to be victorious.)
But the victory over Jawaharlal Nehru’s India was pyrrhic. It created more border issues than solving them, primarily because Beijing failed to take away the useful lessons. The border disputes on the Himalayas linger on till this day, at a time when China could really use a friend in Asia. You only have to read the commentaries of Indian nationalists to see that they are still really mad about it.
The brief 1962 war coincided with the last phase of the Cuban missile crisis, on which the world’s attention was focused. That worked decisively to Mao Zedong’s advantage, as Nehru tried to internationalise the conflict to no avail.
Today, people are again talking about the Cuban crisis because the United States is prosecuting a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, its old nuclear-armed adversary. But for the Indo-Pacific, the 1962 war and its contemporary relevance may be even more decisive to the future of the region.
Pundits today have taken to calling India the “swing state”. It could tilt towards Russia, the United States and China. At the moment, it is playing all sides, and has made no bones about it.
How to win India over or at least not lose it to the US? Well, look deep within!