China Unhappy With Indian Army Chief’s “Two-Front War” Remark

The chief said China has started “flexing its muscles”, while there seems no scope of reconciliation with Pak.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat (left) arrives on a two-day visit to Kashmir on Monday. 

(Photo: PTI)

China on Thursday strongly reacted to India’s Army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s warning of a “two-front war”, saying that Rawat’s statement was at “complete odds with the spirit of cooperation” that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared at the BRICS summit a few days ago.

“Just two days ago, President Xi Jinping pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the two countries are each other's development opportunities, not threats. We don't know whether he was authorised to speak those words or it was just his spontaneous words or whether his words represented the position of the Indian government,” NDTV quoted Geng Shuang, a spokesperson for the Chinese government, as saying.

Also Read: BRICS Summit Helps New Delhi & Beijing Mend Ties: Chinese Media

China Has Started “Flexing its Muscles”: Bipin Rawat

Only a week after India and China ended their two-and-a-half month long conflict, Rawat on Wednesday said that the country should be prepared for a two-front war against China. He said that China has started "flexing its muscles", while there seemed no scope of reconciliation with Pakistan, whose military and polity saw an adversary in India.

As far as northern adversary is concerned, the flexing of muscles has started. The salami slicing, taking over territory in a very gradual manner, testing our limits of threshold is something we have to be wary about and remain prepared for situations emerging which could gradually emerge into conflict.

In military parlance ‘salami slicing’ denotes divide and conquer process of threats and alliances used to overcome opposition.

Also Read: Why War With Pakistan  Is Not an Option

He said there is a possibility that these conflicts could be limited in space and time or can expand into an all out war along the entire frontier, with Pakistan taking advantage of the situation.

"We have to be prepared. In our context, therefore, warfare lies within the realm of reality," he said, adding the Armys supremacy among the three services must be maintained to successfully combat external security threats.

According to NDTV, while this wasn’t the first time the Army Chief had made such a comment, but the timing of his remarks indicate how sensitive the Army remains to the situation with China.

The comments by Gen Rawat came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on a “forward-looking” approach to Sino-India ties, putting behind the Doklam standoff.

The Army Chief, who was speaking at a seminar organised by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, said China was engaging in psychological warfare by using media and information technology against India during the Doklam face-off.

Talking about Pakistan, Gen Rawat said there was no scope for any reconciliation with that country.

As far as our western adversary is considered, we dont see any scope of reconciliation, because their military, the polity, and the people in that nation have been made to believe that there is an adversary, India, which is all out to break their nation into pieces

In a move likely to irk China, India and Japan significantly stepped up defence ties on Wednesday. This, during the visit of Arun Jaitley to Tokyo on his last trip as India's Defence Minister before Nirmala Sitharaman takes over.

Also Read: BRICS Declaration: China Seeks Peaceful Af-Pak Region for OBOR

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