China long used to 'Risk Aversion' strategies of India under past Indian governments in tamely submitting to Chinese predatory aggressions on its Northern Borders with China Occupied Tibet finds itself being subjected to an unobtrusive Indian multi-pronged strategy of "China Pushback".
India's unobtrusive "China Pushback" Strategy is discernible in the period 2014-19 with a BJP Government under PM Narendra Modi in power in New Delhi.
PM Modi's overall focus in this strategy in his first term as Prime Minister from 2014-19 was confined to diplomatic isolation of Pakistan and use of disproportionate military force against Pakistan's incessant military provocations along the LOC in J & K State. This was a signal both to Pakistan and China that robust Indian responses would be the new norm to any border provocations.
In this first term, PM Narendra Modi made diplomatic outreaches to China though Chinese President's State visit to India (in which he was most feted) and the two Informal Summits at Wuhan in China and in Mahabalipuram, Chennai in India.
The aim of the above events retrospectively analyzed suggests that the Indian Prime Minister wished to get a personal measure of the Chinese President and also gain time to put into plan Inda's new deployment plans on the borders with China Occupied Tibet to deal with continued Chinese transgressions with impunity. This included upgradation of India's logistics, Army firepower and surveillance systems.
It also incorporated improving India's strategic military infrastructure opposite China Occupied Tibet for speedy mobilization of enhanced troops-level and logistics to sustain enhanced Indian Army deployments on borders with China Occupied Tibet
With the above taking form, one notices a discernible shift in PM Modi's both in 2018 and more noticeably in second term 2019-23 when India's military responses to China's provocative military moves against India from China Occupied Tibet were met with equal force.
Dokalam Standoff 2018 and the unprecedented military chastening of Chinese Army in Eastern Ladakh at Galwan in 2020 were shining examples of India's new resolve.
Galwan, where Indian Army led by Colonel KD Babu MVC(Posthumous) 16 BIHAR inflicted disproportionate losses in Chinese Army soldiers 'killed', marked a turning point in India's new "China Pushback" Strategy.
For the first time since 1947 when there was only a Battalion for security of Ladakh in 1959. India has deployed a whole Corps for its security against Chinese aggression. With improved military infrastructure and air mobility logistics Indian Army has deployed over 50,000 troops in Eastern Ladakh through two winters supported by tanks and heavy artillery.
The same pattern is evident in Indian Army postures in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Conventional deterrence was thereby imposed on China with such military measures backed by 'Political Will' of no longer any 'Risk Aversion' strategies to 'tie' the hands of Indian Army.
In tandem, with above military measures, PM Modi initiated an over-derive to make Indian Armed Forces self-reliant in military hardware by greater indigenization of defence production and coopting Indian private industry in defence production. All major arms imports were on a government-to-government dispensing with middle-men arms dealers and political corruption.
With China showing its unwillingness to arrive at reasonable 'risk-reduction' responses on disputed areas along India's borders with China Occupied Tibet and China's attempts India to down-size India's growing geopolitical stature in global organizations, one witnesses introduction of two new strands in PM Modi's 'China Pushback' policy.
These two new strands were economic curtailment of Chinese investments in India especially in sensitive domains affecting Indian defence and security.
More telling in effect on China, has been of late, a marked shift in India's policy stances on Taiwan and China Occupied Tibet.
India subtly signaled it by sending a high-powered delegation of three retired Services Chiefs to attend a notable Security Dialogue organized every year by a Taiwan think-tank. India has allowed Taiwan to increase its Liaison Offices in India. Indian Government has also encouraged Taiwanese industrial majors to establish 'microchips' manufacturing plants in India.
On Tibet, under brutal Chinese Military Occupation, one has discerned a couple of steps which would not only irritate China but also signal to China, a new resolve of India's 'China Pushback' strategy. PM Modi congratulated HH The Dalai Lama on his birthday and Indian TV Channels now show Tibetan MPs of Tibet Government-in-Exile.
China would have noticed the recent sale by India of BRAHMOS Cruise Missiles to the Philippines and gifting of an Indian Navy Frigate to Vietnam. Both Philippines and Vietnam are involved in major territorial disputes with China and are strategically located on China's doorsteps.
Concluding, it needs to be highlighted that Modi Government's "China Pushback" Strategy, multi-pronged and in unobtrusive implementation, has not only had a telling effect on China but also has raised India's global geopolitical and strategic stature.
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