Incursion indicates China's unease over India's rise: Experts

Incursion indicates China's unease over India's rise: Experts
New Delhi A US think-tank has said that China’s recent aggression on Indian border is direct result of Beijing’s "nervousness over India's rise."

"Well, I think China is becoming increasingly nervous about India's rise. It's something that they have to deal with that perhaps 10-15 years ago they didn't believe was something that was necessary to focus on," said Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation.

We saw this when they to tried scuttle at the last minute, the civil nuclear deal at the Nuclear Supplier Group meeting last year and so that was sort of an indication that China is not completely comfortable with India's rise on the world stage," said Curtis.

Recently, two soldiers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were reportedly injured in firing from across the border on the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh.
India, however, denied that two of its border guards were injured in firing by Chinese forces.
Curtis said both the sides were mutually mistrustful of each other on the border issue.

"The border issue has lingered for a long time and I think both sides created mistrust on both sides. Perhaps since China is dealing with its internal issue, it has not been interested in completely resolving the border issue but that said. I do not think so either side is interested in any kind of conflict. But I do not see the negotiation moving forward either," Curtis added.
India and China fought a short war in 1962 and, despite burgeoning trade in recent years, mistrust remains.

The two countries have faced off at multi-lateral forums, including Chinese objections to a 60 million dollar Asian Development Bank loan for a project in Arunachal Pradesh.

Reports of Chinese "incursions" have become more frequent of late.

Army launches annual maintenance of forward posts

The Indian Army has launched a massive effort at strengthening forward posts along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, which they described as "routine."

The effort, aimed at operational alertness and kick-started this week, comes at this time annually just before the weather gets worse during winters.

"Nothing much should be attached to this effort, which is carried out annually for maintenance of the forward posts before the weather makes it impossible. This is a matter of routine," Army sources said.

The effort will go on for a month and for the purpose, the Army has employed about half of its strength posted along the 4,057-km-long LAC in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in active duty, they said.

This maintenance effort comes at a time when there have been reports of incursions by Chinese troops in Chumar region of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir where they brought in a military helicopter to air-drop food cans and painted Mandarin letters on some of the stones to lay claim to the territory.

These incursions, the Army had said, were "nothing unusual" due to differing perceptions of LAC on both sides.

Other media reports of Chinese fighter jets violating Indian airspace and firing at ITBP jawans in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the last three months have been denied by the government.

copyright(c) expressindia.com 18 Sept 2009