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> China and India have extant border disputes. And China has been working with Pakistan to contain India for decades. That greatly exaggerates the picture, as
by mmooss 11mo ago
> China and India have extant border disputes. And China has been working with Pakistan to contain India for decades.
That greatly exaggerates the picture, as I understand it. They have symbolic border disputes which are difficult to resolve (you can't really fight a war in the Himalyas). Neither can appear to surrender (see alephnerd's comments on this page), but otherwise no interests are really at stake. They can't affect each other militarily, not much geopolitically - two oceans and the Himalyas separate them - and so far not much economically.
The US has been trying to enlist India against China but India, as usual, is happy to accept our gifts of trade, technolgy, and miltary aid and to smile for the cameras, but isn't participating in our geopolitical struggles.
Why would they get involved in our fight? To win some glaciers in the Himalyas? India also lacks the military and really the economic power to compete with China, and has many other things to spend money on.
- JumpCrisscross 11mo ago> They have symbolic border disputes They shot at each other in '21 [1]. > They can't affect each other militarily China is building naval bases in Pakistan [2] and Sri Lanka [3]. India is heavily dependent on seaborne oil imports [4]. I'm not even going into the various chokes China has on India along the Himalayas. (India lacks similar game-over pinch points on Beijing.) In the same way India controls the upstream Indus to Pakistan, China controls the upstream Brahmaputra to India [5]. (India maintains Nepal and Bhutan as de facto suzerainties.) > not much geopolitically Pakistan just beat India in an air battle. India flew Russian and French jets. Pakistan fielded an integrated Chinese air defence system. > US has been trying to enlist India against China but India, as usual, is happy to accept our gifts of trade, technolgy, and miltary aid and to smile for the cameras, but isn't participating in our geopolitical struggles India was banning Chinese imports before Trump. Which makes sense. China is building capabilities that would let it unilaterally shut down the Indian economy and potentially, if it can pressure Russia, military, on the order of months. That means territories, alliances and even market access terms New Delhi would prefer to determine as a sovereign become ones it must defer to Beijing on. India won't (and shouldn't) fight America's fight for it. It's a properly sovereign state. But sovereignty takes work. And much of that work dovetails with the alliances America is building in the region. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_China%E2%80%93India_skirmishes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_China%E2%80%... [2] https://www.csis.org/analysis/pakistans-gwadar-port-new-naval-base-chinas-string-pearls-indo-pacific https://www.csis.org/analysis/pakistans-gwadar-port-new-nava... [3] https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/aiddata-report-warns-of-a-chinese-naval-base-in-sri-lankas-hambantota-port/ https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/aiddata-report-warns-of-a-ch... [4] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/oil-gas/parliamentary-panel-flags-oil-import-dependence-urges-diversification-amid-geopolitical-risks/articleshow/125965709.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/oil-gas... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmaputra_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmaputra_River
- mmooss 11mo agoI'm aware of all that. I didn't say there was no competition, but I don't think it adds up to nearly the sum that you say. A border skirmish is a long way from a war, and fits with symbolic conflict. > China is building capabilities that would let it unilaterally shut down the Indian economy They can cause problems, but again, that's overstating it imho.