It seems that things are tense on the border between both countries. I think there was a war a few decades before on the same region (Ladakh/Kashmir if I´m not mistaken) but media seems a little bit quiet on this issue now. Any news?

As of four days ago


China vs India

Interesting. Thanks!

No worries. WION news have a bit of a bee in their bonnet re China, understandably enough considering their proximity and they're ever-so-slightly (and by that I mean very) partisan but they're a handy outlet to check out for updates anyway

There are reports now off deaths of soldiers, three confirmed dead on Indian side. Claimed deaths on the Chinese side by India, but not confirmed by China. The confrontation seems small-scale and arbitrary and not the result of some grand plan on either side.

Details on this (and further incidents) will likely remain sketchy. It's a remote region for both countries, and the border is at at extreme altitudes and hard to reach. Don't expect much local journalism. In addition both countries have a long history of inaccurate accounts in regards to conflicts they are involved in.

From a geopolitical perspective, there is little reason for war. This is a largely unimportant region for both countries from that perspective. That said, we shouldn't under-estimate the symbolic nature of the conflict, as evident by the 1960s war. The jokers in the deck is Indian nationalism and Chinese grandstanding, both powerful political motivators of recent policy-decisions.

I'm not familiar with the conflict, but this is what I was thinking. Fighting over this territory seems to make no sense.

It's scary because both are nuclear powers. If one side gets slapped around, their government might have to decide between losing support and falling or a major escalation....

China says it had 24 killed. India says they lost 20.

No shots fired, and the troops were actually fighting with rocks and iron bars, and most of the Indian casualties died of exposure due to the difficulty in recovering them in that area.

Bit of a local breakdown in manners, apparently, while negotiations were in progress. I can just about remember the 1967 border clashes, which involved artillery duels, and this isn't as bad as that.

https://www.businessinsider.com/indi...20-6?r=US&IR=T

Once both sides have nukes, loosing off anything that goes bang is going to earn you an 'interview without coffee' (as the British Army calls it) with your commanding officer, and you won't like that.

For a little context, China hasn’t been sending the best to that area for decades.

Both in terms of men and equipment. CCP really doesn’t care about the border beyond optics and they very much would like to avoid unnecessary calculations there.

We call it a border skirmish but in practice it’s probably two groups of poorly trained soldiers having nothing else to do getting into a brawl.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/...es-in-45-years

44 total dead in a melee like this is insane. Someones needs to tell the Chinese and Indian versions of Francis to lighten up.

Perhaps, but these countries have their internal politics too. Nationalism is big in India and angry men with loud voices can get a lot of oomph by screaming about how leaders do nothing.

I don't think we will see major escalation, but there is always uncertainty in these matters. India now has two nuclear-wielding neighbors it gets into brawls with.

And in general I think bad soldiers at hot borders cause more escalation of conflict than good soldiers do.

100% agree. I just wanted to pre-empt people reading too much the situation thinking the fight is premeditated by either side.

Interesting read if you guys still interested. China´s strategic assessment of the Ladakh clash.

https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/ch...-ladakh-clash/

Good article, gave a lot of context. I'm no expert, but I did some checking of names, authors and stuff and it looked very solid to me.

China's grandstanding (expansionist tendencies is probably a better term) will lead to some irrational decision making and posturing, so the dangers of this conflict go beyond geopolitics.

On India's side I know they mobilized a lot of forces, which is standard. They also made a big deal out of it, which is not. But if that is to alleviate pressure from nationalist politicians or it represents actual motivation is hard to tell.

Now this would be epic.

It's on now: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/tech/...ban/index.html

As expected I guess

Anyway, imho the risk of a real war between both countries is still low. Especially bc this shouldn´t be on China´s best interest right now (if I was on their shoes, I´d rather be able to keep my South China Sea, HK etc aggression without bringing even more western attention or diverting resources to a big war).

I´m more concerned with India being the real aggressor here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_...tion_Act,_2019