2023-04-22 10:41:04
There is an “increase in military collaboration between India and the United States” which “rightly worries” the other Asian giant, China. From Beijing, the sinologist Francesco Sisci discusses with time.news on developments in Asia after the press reports on the two B-1B strategic bombers that the US allegedly sent to India for a joint exercise not far from the disputed border between Beijing and New Delhi. “It is the first time that supersonic bombers are also taking part” and it is a fact that could lead to “changing the strategic equation”, notes Sisci, according to whom “while from the outside there is concern about the Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan, where it is unlikely that there could be an accident”, instead we should carefully follow the border between the two Asian giants, just under 3,500 kilometers between two eternal rival countries which in total have almost three billion inhabitants. A frontier that has always been the subject of territorial disputes and where “tension increases”.
“The military maneuvers around Taiwan (a de facto independent island for which Beijing wants “reunification”) can hardly go out of control because Chinese and Taiwanese, communists and nationalists, have more than a century of experience of relations, know each other very well , they know very well how far they can go and it is unlikely that there could be an accident there”, observes the sinologist, also noting how a possible “attack” on the island would be a “real war, more or less limited, but a conscious choice “. Ben “another thing is the question of the border between China and India”.
The two Asian giants fought a border war in 1962. Beijing and New Delhi have very divergent perceptions of the temporary border line. A serious border clash dates back to June 2020, the ‘battle of the Himalayas’, then tensions reignited last December. “It is possible that things could get out of control”, remarked Sisci, highlighting the differences with the Taiwan question because “an infantry clash can be triggered by a simple accident”.
‘Beijing has developed logistics suited to the altitude of the disputed border, New Delhi has not’
There is also the strategic aspect. India “feels at a disadvantage”, says the sinologist, who explains how “logistically, along the border, China has better tactical positions” as well as being “connected to the border by its industrial center” and having “developed vehicles, trucks, tanks, which can operate at high altitudes”.
India on the other hand, he continues, “doesn’t have such efficient logistic connections, it hasn’t developed such important means that can operate at high altitudes and strategically the border in question is 1,200 km from New Delhi and 5-6,000 km from Beijing” .
It is “in this strategic-military context” that “the presence of American bombers changes or could change the strategic equation”, concludes the sinologist, speaking of an “important” fact for India and of a “strategic element that can be disturbing” for Beijing, without neglecting India’s demographic overtaking of China, with “strategic long-term implications”.
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