Reliable news that peace is fast returning to the Indo- China border is doing the rounds now. There has been an atmosphere of impending war after the military confrontation at the Galvan Valley on June 14, 2020. The confrontation took away the life of 20 brave Indians including a colonel. Though China was mum about the loss on their side, Tas, the Russian news agency later revealed that 40 Chinese soldiers had also lost their lives. After the 1962 war and the Sikkim confrontation, there has not been another incident in which so many lives were lost in an Indo-China battle. The long prevailing peace in the valley was first disturbed when the Chinese Peace Liberation Army encroached into certain provinces in East Ladakh and Sikkim in May 2020. The disturbance soon escalated into an open confrontation and many lives were lost on both sides. That there are various reasons, both domestic and foreign, for such a ‘provocation without warning’ is now evident. The Chinese government is aware of the dissent at the home front as well an at the international level against the government-sponsored regressive measures taken against the domestic threats to the integrity of such a vast country, rise against religious persecutions, the absence of civil and religious freedom, a unilateral government with neither democracy nor opposition. At this juncture, in order to cling to the throne, the rulers naturally wanted to distract the public’s attention. Moreover, it has given incurable insomnia to China to see how India is fast growing as an indispensable force in the Asia sector and how it is also about to become one of the major economic powers of the world.

China, which is already on a market grabbing competition with the US, cannot cope with the idea that India is growing as a world power. So, destabilising India is a secret agenda of the Chinese. When India brought down Jammu Kashmir from its previously enjoyed special position and split it into separate states, it provoked China, a close ally of Pakistan. China habitually raises some of the issues which have been prevailing between India and China. China still claims the 90,000 square kilometre land including Arunachal Pradesh as its own. Furthermore, it still keeps the 38,000 square kilometres of land, an area in the western Himalayas which includes the Aksai- Ladakh sectors. China could never tolerate India’s giving asylum to Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in 1959. China offers support to Pakistan in the Kashmir issue only to make things difficult for India. They also started building a road at Doklam in 2017 with the sole purpose of irritating India. China had receded when India resisted the Chinese invasion of Doklam, a strategically important sector for India. It can be surmised that China resents any upper hand India gets in international politics. The world watches anxiously as the Indo-China relationship degenerates from time to time.

Globally speaking, China’s thoughtless moves gained only bad reputation for them. Since their aggressively invasive moves come in the midst of censure from the world for the Covid epidemic, they lost whatever respect the other countries had for them. Their label as a cantankerous country was further reinforced. It is in the background of this ill reputation and backlash that China showed its willingness to retrace their steps from the encroached land and actually receded to a large extent. When there was a change of government in the U.S and Joe Biden became the president, China hoped that the U.S might show a more lenient attitude towards them. Only that it didn’t happen. Moreover, the U.S vowed to strengthen its relationship with India. Probably the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, as it is about to celebrate the diamond jubilee of its founding, would have realised that their movement has nothing to pride themselves for other than what is merely material. Corona too had its heavy toll on the Chinese and their wealth. When the confrontation between India and China at Galvan became intense, the Indian Government was forced to ban the Chinese products and this too would have forced the rulers to rethink their moves. Even when there was an atmosphere of war between these two nations, statistics shows that the greatest international business partnership existed between these countries. It is the need of the hour for both these countries that the strife which brew up in 2020 should be put an end to. China has no track record of being a do gooder and this means China’s present decision to withdraw from the border does not reflect any good will from their part. Furthermore, the dispute between these counties are still burning issues which are going to burn for quite some time. So, India is keenly and critically watching every move made by China. The US cyber security organization has revealed that the Chinese hackers had attempted to sabotage India's energy distributing systems. This in turn translates as the extent to which India should be cautious and wary of this nagging neighbour.