Dragon is giving voice, but not to go blindly, China’s nature will have to be dangerous, blowing and steps – India cautious of dragon elephant tango war veteran major general general gg dwivedi warn new delhi

Major General GG Dwivedi

New Delhi. On 1 April 2025, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of bilateral relations, Chinese President Xi Jinping took an unexpected initiative and called President Draupadi Murmu and congratulated him. Jinping said that the Dragon and Elephant should move forward in view of the interests of both sides of China-India relations. Please tell that where the Dragon represents China, Elephant reflects India. Even Chinese Prime Minister Lee Kiang said in a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that China is ready to work and pursue it towards mutual strategic cooperation with India. Along with this, the border dispute is also ready to settle properly.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a similar announcement at a press conference in Beijing last month when he said that cooperation between the dragon and elephant is the only correct option for China and India. Wang Yi also said that due to the successful meeting between Xi and Modi in Kazan last October, the relationship between the two countries has made positive progress.

Diplomatic activity between Delhi and Beijing has accelerated after signing an important agreement to solve the deadlock in the Depsang-Demchok regions of East Ladakh on 21 October 2024. There have been several ministerial and top diplomatic meetings including special representatives between the two sides. Delhi’s openness for better relations with Beijing is also clear from PM Modi’s recent interview with American Podcaster Lex Fridman, in which he spoke positively about bilateral relations and said that the general situation has returned to the disputed India-China border.

Mixed signal
There are many such indicators in India-China relations, from which mixed signal is coming out. There is strict competition between the two in the Giopolitical field. Beijing has constantly disappointed India’s ambitions by blocking Delhi’s membership in the major impressive institutions. China has also made deep inroads in the neighborhood of India and has a close security relationship with Pakistan besides making significant impacts in Nepal, Maldives, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

China is in doubt over India’s deep relations with Washington and Taiwan and the presence of the Dalai Lama in Hindustan. China sees platforms such as the Quad and the Indo-Central East Eye Economic Corridor (IMEC) as an effort to combat China. In addition, the neighboring country is also against developing India’s close defense relations with Southeast Asian countries to help deal with China’s aggression in the South China Sea.

Question on China’s intention
Border dispute is a major hurdle between the two neighbors. In May 2020, a large -scale encroachment of the Chinese Army in Eastern Ladakh changed the status of the ‘Line of Real Control’ (LAC) by violating major border agreements, causing prolonged deadlock. While the opposing soldiers have returned to the controversial areas with the buffer zone, there is no progress on the de-escation as the two sides continue to maintain further deployment. According to Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi, the situation on LAC remains ‘stable but sensitive’. He currently denied any plan to cut the number of soldiers at disputed places. In fact, the Indian Army is making another division for deployment in eastern Ladakh.

In the last few years, China has strengthened the LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh and at the same time a comprehensive construction of military infrastructure. Tibet has been converted into a strong defense shield. More than 720 border villages (ziakong) have been built, about one -third of which serve as advance boundary posts in the area around LAC. The border defense law was enacted in the year 2022 to legalize control over respective areas. Chinese leaders are adamant on separating the Seema issue from bilateral relations.

Despite the border tension, a strong growth in bilateral trade has been seen, in which the trade balance is in China’s favor. This is mainly due to India’s dependence on the upstream imports from China of goods used for further exports in areas such as electronics, chemical and machinery. However, excessive dependence on Chinese imports highlights many problems and weaknesses.

That talk of Jaishankar
India’s manufacturing sector is being considered allowed to allow Chinese investment, but due to security reasons, important areas such as telecommunications, defense equipment and data-sensitive IT product-services should be excluded from its purview. The 33rd meeting of WMCC on India-China border matters was held on 25 March 2025 in Beijing. Both sides reviewed the situation on LAC and discovered measures to carry forward the decisions taken during the 23rd meeting of special representatives on the border issue in Beijing in December 2024. There was more progress to facilitate and promote the exchange among people, including direct flights and resumes of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. A day after the WMCC meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar admitted that there would be issues between India and China in the near future, but also said that there are ways to deal with them.

Vigilance necessary
The Chinese leadership has reviewed its policies during this year’s two sessions (meeting of top leaders of China), which is evident from the discovery of soft vowels and innovation to withstand disruptive global economic-technical competition. Beijing Supply Chenco is re -prepared and is moving towards technology based development under the ‘China Plus One’ strategy and Tariff War with America. Chinese policy makers are known for giving minor concessions to achieve their Giopolitical ambitions and protect national interests. No concrete policy change can be expected from the softening of India and China. India matches the plan of China well. India should proceed with the hole-off-nation approach to deal with China. In the elephant-dragon Tango, Delhi should adopt a vigilant optimism and a balanced approach and should be fully aware of China’s previous record, in which it has openly disregarded agreements and protocols as per its convenience.

(Disclaimer: The author is War Veteran and is currently a professor of strategic and international relations. The views expressed in the above article are individual and only the author has his own. Not necessarily they reflect the ideas of news 18 Hindi. To read the original articles in English Click here Do.)