shiv wrote:As I see it - all this emotion about China and "behaving weak" and "behaving strong" are all nonsense. What do we want?
IMVHO - you ask the most important question... then you digress into the weeds!
shiv wrote:
That is rubbish. I find it extraordinary that the same words that flow out of BRF wrt to other countries get choked up when we talk of India. There are no permanent friends or enemies. Only permanent interests
While your digressive tirade is on the right track, and personally enjoyable, it is going to the wrong station... normative claims ought to be made.
The only way to fix the narrative is to come out with an alternate one... otherwise like you say, we get sucked into “haatosmi analysts!”
Here is a simple list - criticism is welcome:
1. India needs to become the first among equals in the IOR - Indo-Pacific region
2. Prevent the Yuan from becoming the default currency
3. Make Tibet & Xinjiang expensive for China
4. Prevent China from becoming a naval power - Work with China’s coastal neighbors to never let them get maritime free hand for ex.
5. Make Pakistan expensive for China - make them own the terrorist and nuclear problem
6. Invite Gobar Times and PLA (retired fat cats!) to public debates on Republic/WION and have some beer and popcorn
7. Indian movies need to explore China or Chinese characters and their struggles - set the narrative!
Anyway, you guys get the gist - what is needed is a very crisp black and white list like the above. The policy that foriegn policy’s only purpose is to transform the life’s of the citizens of India has proved to be too myopic. While that is the end goal, not all things a nation-state does can be constrained into that dictum. Sometimes, states need to do devious things to eventually get to that goal. Other times states have gone wrong becoming obsessed with such behavior - a la Pakis - however, to always play by the rules and never being offensive is a fatal mistake in the India babucrazy. Doklam and Maldives suggests otherwise, that some fore thought and offensive defense is at play, but it is neither sufficient, nor enough!