India and China are just about to wrap up joint military exercises, 45 years after the border war which put an end to the phrase which serves as the title of this post. The CSM reports: 
The decision to hold joint Army exercises, ending tomorrow, in China’s Yunnan Province, is admittedly a small measure. But it is the first time the two armies have cooperated in such a way, and it comes on the heels of rapidly expanding Sino-Indian ties in business and politics…This being the first Army exercise between the two countries, it has been small. Only 95 Indian soldiers have traveled to Yunnan Province, where they are participating in counterterrorism drills. But the joint exercise is expected to become an annual event, helping each side become better acquainted with the other.
“These are building blocks being put in place,” says Rahul Bedi of Jane’s, a London-based military analysis firm. “It’s a part of the learning process…” [Link]
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p>And what did they name these exercises? Operation Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? Sadly, no. That would have been the name if only I were in charge. Instead, the name given to these joint training exercises was “Hand-in-Hand 2007.” Hand-in-Hand? These are supposed to be warriors not playmates. For your viewing enjoyment I have posted some of the most exciting pictures from the the last several days:
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Chinese soldier teaches Indians that the best way to defend against a sledge hammer to the head is by using the nearest pile of bricks for protection. They swear it works and that Indians should try. |
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All the Indian soldiers agree to look “hard” for the camera. Except the one dude who promised to smile for mom. |
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“Those two. I swear bro they were totally checking us out. Can we switch up this time though? You talk to the Chinese one and I’ll talk to the Indian one. She so fine.” |
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This looked much easier when Demi was doing it in G.I. Jane |
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Chinese soldier teaches Indians how to fly (like in the Kung Fu movies when they fly over tree tops). Damn…no wonder 1962 didn’t go well. |
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“I know I’m supposed to fall back and trust them to catch me. But was I popular enough the last few days? Oh please, oh please, oh please let them catch me and not just move out of the way like when I was in grade school.” |
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Because of a lack of funding, soldiers learn skydiving by jumping in to a mud pit |
I for one look forward to welcoming our new yellow/brown overlords, especially if it involves the proliferation of Indo-Chinese food all over the world. Mmm mmm good.
Somehow, I am skeptical about these new relations. I don’t think globalization has abated Chinese imperialism any. I suspect that, just like last time, China is “co-operating” with India with the hopes that India looks the other way when China tries to rearrange its borders a bit.
2 · Pagla said
Hmmm. Maybe Pagla is right.
China will takeup where Japan left off, building a Greater Asian Co-prosperity Spehere with India serving as a source of raw materials. India is so not ready for this
I just can’t take the Indian army seriously when they all sport such silly mustaches.
China sends Pakistan military aid, aid that is intended to help Pakistan rein in India and reduce India’s sphere of influence. There is no reason for India to give preference to such a duplicitous “friend”. I prefer India aligns itself w/ the Japan-Australia-USA coalition.
China also funds leftwing parties in India and then they in turn fight against greater military spending and against closer Indian ties with Free-Market democracies such as USA, Israel, Japan and Australia.
I agree, they should either go full out Veerappan or shave it off.
I think the Chinese military is the one main thing that keeps the Indian military officials awake at night.
I thought it was understood after the last time that Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai is a prelude to a war, and while I don’t think the U.S. Japan Australia coalition is such a great idea either, I think India’s Tibet policy has to be seriously rethought. Will Amardeep follow up on Abhi’s post with a discussion of Ramchandra Guha account of 1962?
Are you siding with Tabu over Amitabh in this debate? You know, Chini Kum?
I think the above is somewhat of a caricature of how left-wing parties in India react to foreign-policy and defence-spending issues in India, and whether that is influenced by China. Firstly: the political left wing’s opposition to closer economic ties with free-market democracies (I am using the term “political left wing” to distinguish it from the unorganized left-wing movements that oppose – with considerable reason, in my opinion – such things as the WTO’s IPR regime, the U.S. and Australian presence in the farm-insurance sector, etc.) is really political theatre, and an increasingly half-hearted one at that. I don’t think this segment of the left even has any conviction in its purely token resistance to closer economic ties with the U.S. et al. The Chinese would be too shrewd to waste their money on this type of agitprop.
As for closer geopolitical ties, especially with the U.S. and Israel: the political left does not have to be “induced” by the Chinese to take the stance that it does. Whatever its prejudices/motivations may be, its position on geopolitics is a valuable contribution to policy making, as has been noted by SM commenters here and here.
All said and done, India can hardly afford to get enmeshed in an American plan of containment and/or a U.S.-Chinese diplomatic proxy war. Whatever the Indian political left does to prevent such an entanglement would, on the balance, be a good thing. As for the move toward closer economic ties with the U.S./Japan – where the left’s influence could have once been damaging – those moves are now irreversible.
I remember the years of goodwill before 1962, enshrined in photographs of Indian and visiting Chinese leaders bathed in warm camaraderie, and the rude awakening Nehru seems to have experienced in the wake of the border incursions. He seems to have condoled daily with Krishna Menon, his Defence Minister, who soon resigned.
Neoconservative websites openly discuss which of the two, India or China to contain first. The issue isn’t one of government type, but of independent states uncontrolled by Washington D.C.
Here is the fundamental problem: the US is 10 times stronger than the next power in the world. Who is containing the neoconservatives when they run wild? That said, I believe a multipolar world is best.
If I may buck the conventional wisdom, any country without second-strike capability is vulnerable in the Age of Neoconservative Imperialism. India has second-strike capabilities against China, but not even first-strike capabilities against the U.S. Not to use it, of course, but to prevent nuclear blackmail.
We’ve seen this in an aggressive attack on Iraq in which its 110 billion barrels of oil are now indirectly controlled, virtually stolen by U.S. firms, in the repeated hints over recent years of nuking Iran’s nuclear facilities, and so forth. Because the neoconservative government is the type to say in private to a weak country, “do this or you will have war”.
I hope this doesn’t appear as trolling, but the reality is that maybe no country has second-strike capabilities against the U.S. today, not even Russia. The non-American lives another day only at U.S. mercy. (That’s why I support Ron Paul, cause he’s the most merciful of the candidates, the others are apparently pro-war.)
Dude if you were going to make funny captions, it would be incomplete without the following pictures which are just begging for them…
here
here
and here
Have to be in pretty good army shape to do that.
Was that a joint military training exercise or an audition for the Cirque du Soleil?
I hope that one day, Chinese imperialism won’t entail me typing “yellow” in the spam-prevention box above. 🙂 Anyways, I have a great opinion of Chinese people, and I think that militarily, there is a lot in common between the Indians and the Chinese. Both countries are HUGE, however, both countries have been bullied by much smaller populations quite a few times. The Chinese have their Mongolia and Japan, and the Indians have their neighbors to the North (i.e. Pashtuns, Turks, etc.).
why China looks far superior to India in urban areas?
After paying a visit to the India-China border post,the defence minister A.K.Antony remarked that China was far ahead of us in terms of infrastructure and there was no comparison between the two sides.if he’s so impressed by the development in the border ,he must go to the mainland and see for himself the amazing progress the country has made.
while India prides itself on having reached the high growth path of 8-9 percent ,China has enjoyed double digit econiomic growth continuously for the past few years .
Dude, if economic growth comes at the price of habitat destruction on land as well as underwater(for once I supported in the religious fanatics in the “bridge-across-Lanka” case) then I’d thank for it.
Dude, if economic growth comes at the price of habitat destruction on land as well as underwater(for once I supported in the religious fanatics in the “bridge-across-Lanka” case) then I’d thank for it.
Im not a dude…..
China is also using its long rivers for navigation.The 660-km-long Yangtze river,called a natural art gallery because of its picturesque landscape.The 3 Gorges project conceived to modify the Yangtze river into a lake serves a three-fold purpose 1)flood control 2)power generation 3)navigation