India calls China’s bluff in Chushul | Analysis

India is negotiating peace and tranquility on Ladakh border while keeping a strong posture on the LAC.

Updated on: Sep 6, 2020, 14:02:55 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Shishir Gupta

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After the Indian Army called the bluff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on the Rezang La ridgeline on August 29-30, India is prepared for a long haul in Ladakh with clear cut directions to the front-line troops not to yield to any Chinese intimidation.

India deployed T-90 tanks on Rezang La ridge line after Chinese sent their armour in Chushul late August.

While both the military and diplomatic channels are open between the two countries, the Indian Army riposte in the last week of August must have had a sobering effect on the adversary with the situation attaining criticality at the Rezang La ridgeline in Chushul sector.

ALSO WATCH | Amid China face-off, ITBP soldiers honoured for bravery in Ladakh

Although psychological warfare through media is the key element of Chinese military strategy, the situation report to the PLA headquarters in Beijing on August 30 military moves must have made the Western Theatre Command realise the mood of Indian Army’s specialized troops and the armour. The new Indian military posture is aimed at repelling any PLA move to unilaterally change the alignment of Line of Actual Control (LAC) in pursuit of its 1960 claim green line.

The Indian position on the Ladakh border was strongly conveyed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to his Chinese counterpart on the side lines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Moscow, the same shall be reiterated by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar when he meets his counterpart on the same platform on September 10. There is a strong possibility of the meeting between India-China Special Representatives on the boundary issue later if Beijing still is committed to the bilateral peace and tranquility agreements. The situation on ground is that China has increased the PLA strength by 60 per cent since Galwan flare-up on June 15 while its leaders talk about peace.

According to China watchers, the PLA aggression will continue till the November US Presidential elections and the Ladakh push from Galwan to Pangong Tso was part of Chinese strategic positioning to punish India for its perceived close relationship with US. “ The climatic conditions in Ladakh in October will ensure that troops only fight for their survival rather than fight against the adversary with polar temperatures and killer winds. The Chinese posture will also depend on whether there is a change of regime in US and what will be its policy towards Beijing,” said a senior official.

What is left unsaid is that the PLA aggression in Ladakh was part of the preparation for 100 years of Chinese Communist party next year, where the middle kingdom will be show-cased as a new global power with Xiaokang (moderately prosperous) society and a modern socialist country.

It is clearly evident that the Chinese did not anticipate the Indian Army reaction in Ladakh as well as the political, military, diplomatic and economic cost of land between Finger 4 and Finger 8 relief features that PLA occupied by perfidy in May 2020.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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