China’s game plan is to practice expansionism while maintaining an economic relationship with India

If peace cannot prevail in the India-China border area, the rest of the relationship cannot continue as before. This is the message that India needs to send to China by hitting it on economic and diplomatic fronts, an article published in Hindustan Times has said. The article suggests that banning Chinese companies from India’s 5G trials can be a solution.

Former Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale in his write-up says that China’s game plan is to hold its position at the border to practice its policy of expansionism while maintaining an economic relationship with India.

He says that once it is able to do so, it will be able to show the world that India has accepted the new military realities on the ground in Ladakh and other countries should not worry about or interfere in the ongoing Sino-India border brawl. It will also cement China’s pre-eminent position in the Asian pecking order which will be a win-win situation for China, Bambawale writes in his article published in HT.

He says that China wants the rest of the relationship to normalise as soon as possible, particularly as this is the 70th anniversary year of the establishment of Sino-India ties. However, it does not want to restore the status quo ante in Ladakh. Therefore, India needs to make it clear that the rest of the relationship cannot work as before until China de-escalates the things at the border, he says.

Bambawale further writes that India needs to send the message that India views PLA’s actions in Ladakh as a serious test for the relationship and that China cannot unilaterally decide where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) actually lies.

For it, he says, military action is not enough and India needs to send an answer in the form of freezing its economic ties with the country. He says that the ban on Chinese mobile phone apps, changes in public procurement policies aimed at weeding out Chinese companies, and an added level of scrutiny in India’s investment apparatus are all good first steps.

However, it did not do much harm to China and India needs to take more steps such as banning the Chinese companies from India’s 5G trials and roll-out, the article says.