Why is India joining Quadrilateral Security despite knowing China is not comfortable with the alliance?

India is compelled to join QUAD because China is an economic superpower but behaves like global hegemon due to its evil CCP policies. Let’s look at the past briefly.

Historical and cultural links between India & China was minimal in history due to presence of very high-altitude Himalaya and Tibetan plateau between them. The only Chinese who visited India that time was Hsuan Tsang in 7th century AD. He used central Asian route bypassing Tibet.

Huen Tsang temple in Nalanda, Bihar in India

Huen Tsang carried back lot of Buddhist scriptures to China in a 16 year long journey & translated them to Chinese. Chinese history, however, has not covered this India visit event in a big way as its impact to Chinese society was minimal but this event is covered in Indian history books. Buddhism reached China indirectly from India via south-east Asia.

India China problem started in 20th century due to Tibet. Tibet always acted as buffer between India and China with minimal population. Tibet was independent on many occasions which Chinese always refuse to admit as they want to control plateau which feeds water resources for almost entire Asia.

Chairman Mao shows his back to PM Nehru

Both of them were highly ambitious to lead the newly independent third world countries after WWII. This led to ego clash. Nehru was pro left and tried to appease Mao wherever possible. Nehru refused to compete with China for permanent UNSC post and closed Indian embassy/consulate in Lhasa and Tibet based trading posts to appease communist China. In 1947, India had a strong presence in Tibet with a full-fledged Mission in Lhasa and three Tradre Agencies in Gyantse, Yatung and Gartok which India inherited from British.

PM Nehru in fool's paradise

India China relations entered honeymoon period for some time as India gave up Tibet privileges. As Dalai Lama fled to India after he was tormented by Chinese leadership, India China relations turn sour as India not just gave asylum to Dalai Lama but gave him VIP treatment. Hindi-Chini bhai bhai (Indian & Chinese are brothers), Panchasheel (5 principles of peaceful co-existance) agreements washed away suddenly and war clouds appeared. Giving shelter to Dalai Lama is the prime cause of the 1962 war and not Nehru’s forward policy as blamed by China. Nehru admitted he lived in a fool’s paradise repeatedly lamented that he only got les and deceit from Chinese leadership. This reminds old saying that communists talk good but always backstabs. Mao Zedong also said this ‘don’t trust what communists say but trust only what communists do’.

Never trust what communists say

Zhou Enlai visited India and said that there would be no war between India and China in future. There was no top Chinese leadership visit in next three decades. The unfortunate event of 1962 is going to haunt both India and China in 21st century. These two most populous countries has the potential to be top two economy in 21 century. Instead, they became rival.

End of Asian century dream

Chinese came prepared with attack. They had 7:1 ratio of manpower needed to attack India (80000 vs 12000 soldiers). They also had height advantage & acclimatization to cold climate. Like in 1953 Korea war, waves and waves of Chinese soldiers were pushed into 1962 border war. India lacked modern weapons (same story today) and failed to use air force. They won the war but could not snatch major landmass from India. China accepted ‘MacMahon line as valid border between China and Burma (Myanmar) but failed to recognise the same line between China and India.

Learning from her father’s mistakes

India Gandhi felt the pain of his father Nehru, the blow he received from China. So, she never went to China not restored diplomatic relationship but this was the best time of India-China relationship as conflicts were minimal. China did not interfere during 1965 & 1971 India-Pakistan wars and border was peaceful despite Sikkim event in 1975.

In 1979 Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China as foreign minister in Morarji Desai government. He had to cut short his one-week trip as China attacked Vietnam in that week. Mrs Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi went to China as a PM and it was top-level return visit of Zhou Enlai by India in two-decade and restored diplomatic relations.

In 1991 President R Venkataraman visited China. It was highest ranking GOI visit since border war in 1962. China exploded one megaton nuclear device during the tour period. A hapless President R Venkataram has to cut short his one-week China trip after the nuclear explosion. This is Chinese way of giving a message.

In 2011, Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh visited China & China launched a white paper on status of Tibet, appreciating communist rule has improved economic conditions of Tibetans who were previously nomadic & medieval. It was an indirect snub to Indian PM.

In 2012, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made his first overseas trip as premier to India symbolizing the high priority China govt gives to India. But just before this trip, Chinese army penetrated 35 KM inside India in Dipsang plains in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir. Chinese army left 3 weeks later after intense negotiations. India China leadership meetings continue to remain bogged down due to PLA actions.

In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India. When Xi & Modi enjoying a swing in Ahmedabad riverfront, Chinese troops again entered Ladakh area. Modi promptly raised the incursion issue with visiting Chinese President Xi managed the PLA to backout. This way Modi-Xi bilateral border issue handling started in a stormy note.

China released coastal defence zone during PM Modi visit which extends into Andaman Sea

Modi during his first visit to China as PM in May 2015 mentioned that India & China lived peacefully for many centuries. However recent last six decades relationship is uneasy & China needs to ‘change’ its policy on some bilateral issues. He clearly blamed evil CCP for the current poor ties. When Modi was Gujarat CM for 12 years, he could not go to many western countries to promote investment for his home state because of visa restriction on him. So, he made multiple trips to China as CM and promoted Chinese investment in India (when one door closes, another door opens automatically). Modi tried the same pro-business policies as PM but Doklam in 2017 and bloody Galwan on 2020 border clashes proved that communists can’t be trusted. Modi also failed to reduce India’s trade deficit with China. Trade deficit increased from $1.6B in 2004 (Vajpayee era) to a whopping $100B in 2022. China deliberately keeps Indian export out of its market but Modi failed to handle Chinese restrictions on Indian exports like IT to China.

China also tried its best to encircle India using smaller south Asian countries with military hardware sale and debt trap diplomacy. This was working well till the pandemic and Ukraine war impacted badly some smaller south Asian countries. All the Chinese backstabbing’s led to India dumping its seven-decade-old non-alignment policy and drifted towards QUAD. What will happen if India pursues ‘reverse string-of-pearl’ policy with big players to encircle China?

Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner

India, the lamb state

Home > News > Specials The Rediff Special /Brahma Chellaney June 02, 2004 � F orty years ago, India's first prime minister passed into the ages. On his death anniversary, May 27, Lieutenant General Eric A Vas (retd) commenced�rediff.com's series�to evaluate Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy with a perspective of the premier's relationship with the military. Today, national security and foreign affairs expert Brahma Chellaney continues the debate�with an assessment of Nehru's foreign policy. T alleyrand, the illustrious foreign minister of Napoleon and the Bourbons, prescribed one basic rule for pragmatic foreign policy: by no means show too much zeal.�In India's case, gushy expectations, self-deluding hype, and oozing zealousness have blighted foreign policy since Independence, constituting the most enduring aspect of the Nehruvian legacy, other than the hold of the Nehru family dynasty over the Congress party and the continued strength of Indian democracy. Zeal is to Indian diplomacy what strategy is to major powers. India has rushed to believe what it wanted to believe. Consequently, India is the only known country in modern history to have repeatedly cried betrayal, not by friends but by adversaries in whom it had reposed trust. Reflecting India's decline in its own eyes, however, while one 'betrayal' in 1962 hastened the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, another in 1999 kept Atal Bihari Vajpayee going as if it did not happen despite his public admission that his ' bus to Lahore got hijacked to Kargil.' It was finally the voters who decided they had had enough of Vajpayee. Earlier, in 1972, even the strategist Indira Gandhi slipped up at Simla by trusting her opponent's word on Kashmir. Also Read: The Errors of Simla The strength of any nation's foreign policy depends on the health of its institutional processes of policy-making, on realistic goals, strategies, and tactics, and on the timely exploitation of opportunities thrown up by external conditions.�Indian foreign policy, regrettably, has been characterised by too much ad hocism, risk aversion, and post facto rationalisations. Institutional processes are operationally weak and there is no tradition of strategy papers to aid political decision-making.�An uncritical media only encourages a political proclivity for off-the-cuff decisions. In the absence of a set of clear, long-term goals backed by political resolve, Indian foreign policy has not been organised around a distinct strategic doctrine. Without realistic, goal-oriented statecraft, the propensity to act in haste and repent at leisure has run deep in Indian foreign policy ever since Nehru hurriedly took the Kashmir issue to the UN Security Council without realising that the Security Council, as the seat of international power politics, has little room for fair dealing. From the Rediff Archives: 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away?' The India-China territorial dispute is another problem bequeathed by Nehru to futur

https://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/02spec1.htm

Chinese deception, Nehru's naivete led to '62 war: CIA papers - Times of India

US News: Declassified CIA documents released this week extensively detail what the US saw as Chinese perfidy and Indian naivete that led to the 1962 war betwee

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/chinese-deception-nehrus-naive