Indian Air Force chief has listed out possible objectives for Chinese aggression in Ladakh

NEW DELHI, Dec 30, 2020, India Today. Indian Air Force chief RKS Bhadauria has listed out possible objectives for Chinese aggression in Ladakh in what is the first analysis put out in the public domain, India Today reported.

At a webinar, IAF chief Bhadauria said on Tuesday, “We are all aware that China’s main aspirations are quite clearly on the global front and regional domination is a part of the route to global leadership that they aspire for.”

“The important question for all of us is any serious India-China conflict is not good for China on the global front. If Chinese aspirations are global then it does not suit their grand plans? Therefore, what could be the possible Chinese objectives for their actions in the North? This is important for us to understand:

1. Was it simply military signaling/ domination efforts focused in the region with adequate escalation control, which they seem to be exercising?

2. Was it deployment and training of their Western Theatre Forces in real war-like scenarios wherein Galwan incident was an overreach?

3. Or, was it to fine-tune and enhance their military technologies and recognise and fill their gaps- to get their forces to synergize – in the new structures, in new technologies and whatever they have implemented in recent two decades?

4. Was it a planned escalation, and attempt to get to their claim lines and start border talks from new positions? In any case, what has actually happened is all of the above, irrespective of what was the starting objective.

5. It could also possibly be a totally military-dominated misadventure that escalated – given the rapid decrease in trust deficit after Covid. With the Chinese state’s position and possible loss of face, it is possible the action later on continued to escalate.