Ze hebben er best een tijd over gedaan – in juni vielen nog bijna vijftig doden toen beide zijden met geweerkolven ten strijde trokken, maar het eerste echte schot tussen India en China werd gisteren gelost.

Beide landen beschuldigen elkaar er van dat eerste schot te hebben gelost.

China and India have each accused the other of firing shots across the border along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the high altitude flashpoint region of Ladakh.

Zoals het nu klinkt zou het nog een misverstand kunnen zijn…

Beijing charged India with a “severe military provocation” after it claimed Indian troops breached the LAC and entered the Chinese to side. They then “opened fire to threaten the Chinese border defense patrol officers,” according to the PLA charge.
An Al Jazeera correspondent in Beijing reports that “According to the Chinese side, Chinese troops approached the India side for negotiations, and then they say some Indian troops fired at the Chinese side.”

Maar na alle spanningen van het afgelopen kwartaal kun je dat nauwelijks nog serieus nemen;

“As a result, China’s military said it was forced to take countermeasures – although we don’t know what those countermeasures were, or if there were any casualties,” the report added.
A series of high level military to military talks have thus far prevented this type of escalation since the June 15 incident which saw the rival sides clash in hand-to-hand combat, resulting in 20 Indian troop deaths and a presumed unknown number of PLA[1] casualties.

Volgens China was het echter onmiskenbaar Indiase agressie:

Indian troops again illegally crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) into the Shenpao mountain region near the south bank of Pangong Tso Lake on Monday. They then outrageously fired warning shots at Chinese border patrol troops who came to negotiate, and Chinese border patrol troops were forced to take measures to stabilize the area, a spokesperson of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theater Command said early Tuesday.

De eerste reactie van China is zowel boos, waarschuwend als ietwat krachteloos:

“We must warn India seriously: You have crossed the line! Your frontline troops have crossed the line! Your nationalist public opinion has crossed the line! Your policy toward China has crossed the line! You are over-confidently provoking the PLA and Chinese people – this is like doing a handstand on the edge of a cliff!”

Want de echte vraag blijft, wat zal China’s reactie zijn?

En ook, maar nog steeds even aarzelend:

Nationalist forces in India should think twice that if the Chinese and Indian armies change their agreement of handling friction along the border area to prioritize the use of gun, then what use of them seizing two commanding heights on the south bank of Pangong Tso Lake? Does commanding height make sense in modern military conflict? Between Indian and China, which country has more weaponry and which country has bigger military budget, can’t Indians count out?

En natuurlijk draait India de zaak om (of China doet dat)

New Delhi immediately threw the accusation back, denying that its own troops carried out the aggression, instead blaming China.
“It is the PLA that has been blatantly violating agreements and carrying out aggressive maneuvers,” the Indian army said Tuesday in an official statement.
“Despite the grave provocation, (our) own troops exercised great restraint and behaved in a mature and responsible manner,” the army added.

Maandag had India nog een nieuwe hypersonische raket getest, een zelfde wapen als waarmee Rusland ooit begon en dat wordt geacht vliegdekschepen voortaan waardeloos te maken.

The successful test of the hypersonic vehicle is an important milestone for India as it now joins the US, Russia, and China in the hypersonic club.

In a historic mission today, India successfully flight tested Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), a giant leap in indigenous defence technologies and significant milestone towards a #sashaktbharat and #atmanirbharbharat.

— DRDO (@DRDO_India) September 7, 2020

Dat zag er overigens zó uit:

Successful flight test of Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV) from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Launch Complex at Wheeler Island off the cost of Odisha today. pic.twitter.com/7SstcyLQVo

— रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) September 7, 2020

Bij de test werden overigens omineuze woorden gesproken:

“This has been some time in the making and the challenge now is to make a time-bound transition to the prototype testing phase. China is quite ahead in hypersonics and India cannot afford to lag behind,” Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (Retired), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies, said.

En nu maar hopen dat Pakistan hier buiten blijft.

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1. PLA – People’s Liberation Army, de gebruikelijke naam voor het leger van mainland China

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Meer over de perikelen die India heeft met zowel Kashmir (binnenlands, Pakistan) als China (actueel grensconflict) vindt  u hier op Veren of Lood.