India’s military not as strong as officers claim: Hu Zhiyong

BEIJING: India’s military was merely bluffing and is not as strong as it claims, an expert said following the harsh remarks made by Indian military officers towards China.

“Apparently India was grandstanding to make it appear powerful to its neighbouring countries in South Asia. However, their military is not as strong as stated,” said Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

The Indian Army has been “very well prepared” and China is unlikely to try any “misadventures anymore,” said Indian General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Army Command of the Indian Army, Abhay Krishna on India’s army day on Monday, India’s Economic Times reported.

The statement was made in response to a question on the preparedness of the Indian Army after the Doklam standoff in June 2017.

It was made only two days after the Indian army chief Bipin Rawat told a press conference on Friday that China was exerting pressure on India along the border, but claimed that the Indian Army was fully capable of dealing with any security challenges on the northern frontier.

The unconstructive remarks made by the senior Indian officials did not only go against the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, but also were against the bilateral efforts to safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border areas, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a daily briefing on Monday.

“The military officials’ remarks do not represent the Indian government’s attitude, while the Indian government’s response, which has yet to be heard, is a litmus test of India’s sincerity to improve bilateral relations with China,” Qian Feng, a researcher at the Chinese Association for South Asian Studies told the Global Times.

Qian said that more border disputes are highly possible, and both sides should deal with this crisis through the border management mechanism to avoid incidents like the Doklam standoff.

Sino-Indian relations have reached a turning point that either the two countries find an acceptable position for their ties and a mechanism to coordinate, or their relations will be a burden to the two rising powers, Zhang Jiadong, a professor at Fudan University’s Centre for American Studies, wrote in an article published on a news site thepaper.cn on Tuesday.

It is pertinent to mention here that Indian soldiers trespassed into Chinese territory in Doklam and stayed for more than 70 days in June 2017, sending the Sino-Indian ties to a historic low.