China's State Media Reacts After India Predicts Prolonged Border Tensions

Newsweek ^ | 3.20.2024 | Adil Brar

[libh8er]

Chinese state media sharply reacted to comments by India's Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, who has called China a challenge for the "foreseeable future."

"India has an excessive suspicion and paranoia toward China's rise. Seeing China as the 'most formidable' challenge makes no sense and has no chance of success for India. India does not need to 'fear' the so-called 'China challenge' China and India can and should be partners, avoiding becoming opponents, and certainly not enemies," Chinese state media outlet Global Times said on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.

China and India now consider each other geopolitical rivals, as Washington has backed New Delhi as a bulwark against Beijing in the Indo-Pacific region. China and India have been locked in a four-year-long military standoff, which began in June 2020. The beginning of the stand-off in 2020 saw the first clash between the armies of China and India in over four decades.

"The unsettled borders with China and the rise of China will remain the most formidable challenge that India and Indian armed forces will face in the foreseeable future," Chauhan said at an event organized by a university in India's Pune on Monday, Indian news channel NDTV reported on Tuesday.

Newsweek contacted India's Ministry of Defense for comment.

"The occupation of Tibet by China, made them a new neighbor, and a partition of India created a new nation that thrived on hostility and hatred towards us," Chauhan added.

At least 50,000 soldiers on the Chinese and Indian sides are immediately facing each other in the Eastern Ladakh region since the stand-off began in 2020. At the same time, there is known to be a far more extensive deployment of troops in the rare areas of the Line of Actual Control.

[Nateman]

They wrestle with each other over the most useless and difficult to defend territory on Earth. Pakistan is also a key player here.

[cold start]

They wrestle with each other over the most useless and difficult to defend territory on Earth. Pakistan is also a key player here.

I know that in recent times, the US seems to have an amorphous concept of what constitutes a border but that does not mean other countries have to follow it.