Well, the murder of 20+ unarmed Indian soldiers is obviously an exceedingly 'Bad Thing' but, of course, this is part of the warp and woof of international power politics and thus human feelings are to be ignored! The end result is that China now has a massive and exceedingly angry neighbour right on its frontier - and that, for the rest of us, is very definitely 'A Good Thing'. It is also an indication that belief in the superb and subtle craft of Chinese 'real politik' is nonsense. They are as big a bunch of stumblebums as any other so-called 'Great Power'.
They are already locked into a wrestling match with the most powerful nation in the world and one would have thought that they would have the good sense not to provoke a 'next door neighbour' whose population of 1.3 billion is equal to theirs! I trust - I hope? - that 'The Donald' has the good sense to make 'nicely-nicely' with the Indian government, you know, 'hands across the Himalayas' and all that sort of thing. Even more so, I hope that he offers Australia similar support as China unleashes its ill-temper against the 'Aussies' - as should we, although quite what we have to help them I'm not sure!
Oh God, those damned 'interesting times' have returned!
All they need now is to upset the Russians as well. I'm sure someone in Washington is working on it.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 11:35
It struck me odd that the Chinese wanted to make a fuss over a worthless border in a remote mountain area at this point in time. A "Wag the Dog" scenario may be underway. Maybe their economy is much worse off than they are letting on. And maybe their home made virus has impacted their population much worse than any of us know. Both together calls for a distraction to "wave the bloody shirt".
Trump and PM Modi seem to have hit it off well lately. We need each other in that part of the world.
Posted by: Whitewall | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 12:15
https://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2020/06/china-india-ladakh-long-memory-of.html
'Odd at this point'?
Well yeah after a fashion I suppose Whitewall but you'll recall the little tiff between the Pakis and the Chinks David was mentioning a (relatively) short time ago?
Maybe the Chinks decided to use a common enemy for a distraction.
Posted by: JK | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 12:22
Hey! What other stumblebums are you referring to?
Posted by: Bob | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 12:46
"What other stumblebums" Bob?
https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/7ahqn/
Turned out quite a number of 'em.
Posted by: JK | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 14:14
They need another player like March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao Island on the Ussuri River, near Manchuria.
Posted by: Up2L8 | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 14:31
Ah yes Ups, that's - perhaps purely coincidentally - where the Uighurs seem to make up quite a sizeable number isn't it?
China does seem to have 'issues' wherever there happen to be faith groups. I mean, the commies are notoriously anti-faith aren't they?
Where the commies bump up against those sorts of folks there does seem to be the cycles of turmoil. Whether planned/desired or not. Or perhaps even sometimes, convenience.
Posted by: JK | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 15:04
Thanks for the link, JK. The pdf looks good. I'll read it ASAP.
Posted by: Bob | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 15:50
Quite right.
My opinion, Russia giving up much of the disputed border lands to China says more about the weakened state of Russia.
Posted by: Up2L8 | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 16:18
Actually Bob the 2010 edition of the paper is the one better referred to, if you can find a working link - I've got it on a flashdrive (the text) but the link to source for the docfile no longer functions.
At the bottom of the linked study you can "supposedly access" earlier versions but after placing that link I was only able to retrieve back to Jan 12(?) 2020.
I'm rather busy today to do much searching but maybe tomorrow ...
Posted by: JK | Friday, 19 June 2020 at 16:45
I think the Chinks have drunk their own ink.
All that stuff they tell their people about China being great and powerful they've swallowed hook line and sinker.
Either that or its desperate measures from a desperate regime.
Bit of both?
Posted by: Pat | Saturday, 20 June 2020 at 09:05
JK,
I read something similar during the late 90s. It was a paper by a sociologist or group of them, and came to the same conclusion by a different means. If I can remember who it was, and that's not as sure a thing as it used to be, I'll try to find it.
Actually, instability in American culture is a feature, not a bug. It's not surprising.
Posted by: Bob | Saturday, 20 June 2020 at 14:47