The recent clashes between the Indian armed forces and China’s People’s Liberation Army along the contentious Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley have come as the latest blow to an already crisis-ridden India. The violent exchange with the Chinese, the bloodiest in 45 years, has resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers, with several more reported to have been injured.
Struggling to cope with the medical and economic repercussions of COVID-19, the last thing India needed at such a precarious time was military combat with China, which is determined to create geopolitical distractions amidst widespread disenchantment at home. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chinese aggression has not merely opened another front on which he must be accountable. It has also exposed the failures of his brand of personalised photo-op diplomacy.
No Indian leader has visited Chinese shores more often than Modi, who has touched down on Beijing on nine different occasions, five of which have come since becoming prime minister in 2014. It is no secret that Modi has been an admirer of China’s state-driven private enterprise. As the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi, intent on showing off his Gujarat model as the pinnacle of development, solicited Chinese business leaders. Consequently, for over a decade, they have been a prominent fixture of Vibrant Gujarat summits for more than a decade.
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