China will have to pay a heavy price for military misadventure in eastern Ladakh: experts

PTI, Jun 27, 2020, 2:38 PM IST

New Delhi: China will have to pay a “heavy price” for decades for resorting to aggressive military behaviour towards India in eastern Ladakh as it will isolate the country globally, strategic affairs experts said on Saturday.

They said the economic cost of China’s misadventure in the last couple of months in eastern Ladakh and South China will be “massive” as it has “exposed” Beijing’s “real face” when the entire world is fighting coronavirus.

The experts have also referred to China’s tariff war with the US, growing bickering with Australia on trade-related issues and the fast deteriorating situation in Hong Kong.

“China has made a huge mistake by resorting to aggressive military behavior in eastern Ladakh. By triggering the standoff when the world is fighting the coronavirus pandemic, China has exposed itself globally,” former Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Gurmit Singh said.

“The cost for China will be huge. It will be heavy. It will keep paying the cost for several decades for killing Indian soldiers in Galwan valley on June 15. China has lost its goodwill in India and elsewhere,” he added.

Referring to brutal attacks on Indian soldiers in the Galwan valley, he said the action has reinforced the view that China’s People’s Liberation Army is “just a political” force and that it does not conform to military standards.

Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Subrata Saha too said China is getting itself isolated by its unacceptable military aggression and the country will have to pay a heavy diplomatic and economic price for it.

“China is isolating itself by its aggressive conduct both militarily and diplomatically. So there will be a price for it. It is putting itself into a corner,” he said.

Lt Gen Saha said there will a significant economic price that China will have to pay for its “misadventure”.

He also referred to growing international concerns about what is happening in Hong Kong, South China Sea as well as in East China Sea.

Gen Saha also talked about trade war between China and the US calling it a kind of “fight to finish” conflict. He also referred to China’s deepening trade crisis with Australia.

The Indian and Chinese armies are locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the last six weeks, and the tension escalated manifold after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in Galwan valley on June 15.

Following the Galwan valley clashes, the Army has sent thousands of additional troops to forward locations along the Line of Actual Control in various sectors including in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim.

The IAF has also moved a sizeable number of its frontline Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar, Mirage 2000 aircraft and Apache attack helicopters to several key airbases including Leh and Srinagar following the clashes.

The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on May 5 and 6. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in North Sikkim on May 9.

Prior to the clashes, both sides had been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it was necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.