A NEW SILK ROAD, INDIA CHINA AND THE GEOGRAPHICS (HB)

Broad in sweep and range, a
new silk road is a must be read by anyone concerned with international
affairs. In the summer of 2020, China, despite facing international
condemnation for its response to the pandemic, entered into an
eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with India in the border areas of Ladakh.
Though many analysts insist that the unprovoked Chinese action was aimed at
deflecting attention from the pandemic, the real reason lies elsewhere
President Xi’s ambitious plans for his nation. It is to strengthen the
China-Pakistan economic corridor (cpec) that leads from gwadar port in
Balochistan to China’s Xinjiang province and passes through Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir (pok). this opens a new shortened path for Chinese exports and
imports that otherwise would have to go through Eastern China located far
away. Ladakh allows relatively easy access to both pok and Xinjiang; thus the
Chinese seek to get a toehold in Ladakh. Even as he re-examines outdated
assumptions and makes path-breaking discoveries about China’s new ‘great
game’, Kingshuk Nag argues that it is imperative to understand history and
learn from it to assess current events. Nag insists that India and China are
vastly different nations with very diverse political and economic strategies—something
that Indians must understand in order to counter the Chinese conundrum.