Beijing: Following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan earlier this month, Beijing has urged New Delhi to publicly support the one-China policy. However, this request is unlikely to be heeded due to bilateral tensions and more than a decade's worth of precedent.
After a dispute between the two nations over the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, parts of which Beijing claims are southern Tibet, and China's issuance of loose-leaf "stapled" visas to residents of both that state and the contentious Kashmir region, Delhi last made reference to the policy in public around 2010.
Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, a professor of international studies at Nalanda University in Bihar, eastern India, said that since that time, India has never used this phrase in official documents or statements.
Beijing must take into account India's worries as well. China is unnecessarily feeling insecure and requesting assurances, despite the fact that India has not altered its policy.
In a post on the embassy's website last weekend, Sun Weidong, Beijing's ambassador to India, urged New Delhi to "openly reiterate" its support for the one-China policy, noting that "many other countries" had already done so.
A spokesman for Delhi's foreign ministry had only stated that India urged "the exercise of restraint, avoidance of unilateral action to change the status quo, de-escalation of tensions, and efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region" on August 12, before the ambassador's call and a full 10 days after Pelosi's arrival in Taiwan.
Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, said in the carefully worded statement that "India's relevant policies are well known and consistent and they do not require reiteration."
China's response to Pelosi's visit to Taipei included several days of aggressive military drills that encircled the autonomous island.
According to Beijing, Taiwan is a province that is a part of the PRC. The majority of nations do not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state, but some, including the United States and Britain, do so while still maintaining Beijing's stance that Taiwan is a part of China.
According to Swaran Singh, a visiting political science professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, India's deliberate ambiguity, reluctance to reiterate the one-China principle, and "delayed and rather muted response" to Pelosi's visit are all at least partially related to the increased tensions along their disputed border in recent years.
Pelosi left Taiwan the same day that Indian defence and military sources revealed information to domestic media about joint military drills with the US that will reportedly concentrate on high-altitude warfare training in October in the northern border state of Uttarakhand.
A brigade of the Tibetan Military District of the People's Liberation Army conducted live-fire air defence drills around the same time, according to Chinese state media, though they didn't provide a specific location or date.
Sana Hashmi, a visiting fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation in Taipei, stated that India wants to keep the border dispute "at the forefront" and is upset "that while China wants India to pay attention to its sensitivities, [it] is showing a complete disregard of India's sovereignty."
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative to expand global trade, passes through portions of Kashmir that Islamabad administers but Delhi claims. This is another instance of territorial sovereignty being at play in India's opposition to the CPEC.
According to Bagchi, the spokesperson for the Indian foreign ministry, reports of the CPEC's potential expansion to "interested third parties" like Afghanistan would "directly infringe on India's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
According to Bagchi, Delhi "strongly and continuously opposes projects in the so-called CPEC, which are in Indian territory that has been illegally occupied by Pakistan." India will treat such activities as being inherently illegal, illegitimate, and unacceptable.
Chirayu Thakkar, visiting faculty at Krea University in India and doctoral candidate in international relations at the National University of Singapore, stated that Beijing cannot "connive with Pakistan and then expect reiteration of the one-China policy." He also added that "a different, nationalist and assertive dispensation is now in New Delhi that will not shy away from flexing its muscle."
Asghar's listing does not hold as much importance for Delhi as "the reiteration of the one-China policy does for Beijing," according to Thakkar. Earlier this month, China blocked a move by India and the US to have Abdul Rauf Asghar of the Pakistan-based Jaish e-Mohammed militant group listed as a terrorist by the UN Security Council. Thakkar claimed that "such tactics will not work" because "blocking the listing of a terrorist makes China look
On August 10, India flew exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in a military helicopter to a remote monastery in the contentious Ladakh region, which analysts described as yet another tacit snub of Beijing. The Indian defence ministry later released a photo of the monastery.
India released the image "to throw it in Beijing's face," Derek Grossman, a senior defence analyst at the US-based Rand Corporation global policy think tank, claimed on Twitter.
Beijing's "belligerence" was met with defiance from Delhi
According to Singh from the University of British Columbia, India does not follow any other major power exactly but is instead "becoming increasingly assertive in pursuing its own national interests that demand smart balancing."
As Thakkar of Krea University agreed, New Delhi will need to delicately balance its obligations to its allies, its status as a regional power, and its own interests.
However, Thakkar said, "the current trajectory suggests that New Delhi will defy Beijing to a greater extent the more belligerence Beijing exhibits towards New Delhi."
He also brought up a recent disagreement between the two sides over the docking of a Chinese research vessel in Sri Lanka, which Delhi objected to because it was reportedly concerned the vessel would be used to spy on its operations.
In recent months, India has taken the initiative to restrain China, cooperating closely with its Quadrilateral Security Dialogue partners, the US, Japan, and Australia, and participating in joint military exercises with them.
India's foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, told reporters in Bangalore on August 12 that the ongoing standoff at the country's and China's disputed border continued to strain bilateral ties.
Since the situation at the border cannot be normal, he declared that "our relationship is not normal."
China increases its imports of Russian energy
Treaty allies between China and the US improving military ties with Thailand
