Galwan valley clash unmasks China’s geopolitical intent and India’s delusion with China

The deadly clash in the Galwan Valley on 15 June night 2020 is a culmination of weeks of rising tension on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) which goes back to the Indo-China War in 1962. Despite the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s friendly policy to China -Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai, Asian Solidarity, and India’s support to China’s inclusion in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)- China took a belligerent approach towards India by waging a war against India. The war in 1962 and 1967, standoffs in 1987, 2013, the Dokhlam standoff in 2017 and the recent standoffs between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants have been attributed to mainly to the enduring conflicting strategic rivalry and the differing perceptions about the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on the Indo-China border. However, a range of factors including China’s desperate attempt to use the humanitarian crisis of the Covid-19 outbreak to achieve its geopolitical goal is responsible for the deadly clash on the LAC that was not seen until 1975.