Broadcasts.com - "S1E92: With both sides beefing up, latest India-China border clash a bad sign: Asian Insider" (Asian Insider)

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S1E92: With both sides beefing up, latest India-China border clash a bad sign: Asian Insider

Published: Dec. 22, 2022, 4 p.m.

Synopsis: Each fourth Friday of the month, The Straits Times\' US bureau chief Nirmal Ghosh presents an Asian perspective of the biggest global talking points with expert guests.

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On Dec 9 Indian and Chinese troops got into a skirmish on the border of India\\u2019s northeastern Arunachal Pradesh state with China - the eastern sector of the long and in many places disputed Himalayan border. As previously in 2020, this skirmish did not involve firearms, but no less brutal hand-to-hand combat with weapons like wooden clubs embedded with nails. In this new clash there were reported injuries, but no deaths.

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In this episode on the volatile Himalayan border, Nirmal Ghosh hosts Dr Manoj Joshi, a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in New Delhi and author of a new book Understanding the India-China Border: The Enduring Threat of War in High Himalaya; and Dr Aparna Pande, a scholar of Indian and South Asian foreign policy, and Director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia, at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC.

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Highlights (click/tap above):

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2:08 This time, very clearly, the Chinese came up with a plan. They had an extraordinarily large number in their patrol. This was not just a patrol. But given their 2020 experience, the Indians were ready.

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4:10 The significance of Tawang is not just strategic, but that the Tawang Monastery is there \\u2013 one of the most sacred places for Tibetan Buddhists.

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5:44 The obsession with Tawang actually begins only in the mid-1980s. The Chinese said if you want to settle the (disputes border), you must give us Tawang \\u2013 and India has bluntly said that means you don\\u2019t want a settlement.

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\\xa06:45 The Indian Army is on Yangtse, and the Chinese are trying to push them out.

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\\xa07:45 The Chinese have fobbed off Indian attempts to negotiate a settlement on the border. Overlapping claims are convenient, keeping India off balance.

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\\xa010:00 A 1996 agreement between India and China prohibits using weapons in the 2-kilometre zone along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). But how long will that last? It\\u2019s a matter of time before a breakdown.

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\\xa012:35 Chinese actions on the border have driven India and the United States to become more closely aligned.

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\\xa013:00 Broad consensus in India on China, and strong defences in the Himalayas. India dropped the ball in 2020 but learned its lesson.

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\\xa014:05 The Chinese have been rapidly beefing up infrastructure in Yangtse; there is a buildup \\u2013 on both sides.

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15:30 At the end of the day the border issue has to be decided at the highest levels in both countries, otherwise, it will escalate.

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Produced by: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis, Hadyu Rahim and Fa\\u2019izah Sani

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Edited by: Hadyu Rahim and Fa\\u2019izah Sani