At present, the atmosphere between America and China is being compared to the Peloponnesian War and it is being said that it does not want to allow China to emerge more.
Perhaps China’s aggressive military moves along the Line of Actual Control are also an indication that it can keep India in check.
Although India may take suicidal steps, it is also possible to quadruple its per capita income in the next 20 years.
China’s behavior shows that it is uncomfortable with the growing economic stature of pluralistic and democratic India.
It is possible that there is a feeling among China’s elite and South East Asian countries (ASEAN) that if democratic India develops slowly, then the control of centralized government can be justified more.
In the fifth century BC, Athens had a population of between 3.5 and half a million and Sparta had a population of only 50,000.
Even in that era, India and China had significant military powers and the population of both the countries was around 25 million.
In recent centuries, much of Asia was colonized by the scientific and military powers of the West.
In the first half of the 20th century, European countries could not keep up with the rise of other countries, and American fears of the Soviet Union and the Left led to the Cold War.
These days, Thucydides often refers to the standoff between the US and China, meaning a conflict between an established power and an ambitious rival.
The countries of Asia have to give up the mindset that plagues the countries of Europe from the past enmity and the two world wars or the cold war of the 20th century.
In the 21st century, China has become similar to the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in military and economic terms and also at the military level.
As far as India is concerned, it seems more confident today than it was two decades ago.
According to the April 15, 2023 issue of The Economist, the 25 largest non-aligned countries include countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia or said they want to remain neutral in the Sino-US conflict.
These two countries account for 45 per cent of the world’s population and their share in global GDP has grown from 11 per cent in 1989 at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall to 18 per cent now.
Countries with low per capita income should learn from their past periods of prosperity instead of using Thucydides-like comparisons to take sides against Russia.
Similarly, China should also be explained that it should not consider India as an economic and military rival.
Western commentators are right in saying that Vladimir Putin has set Russia back because of his short-sighted economic policies. He became overly dependent on the export of fossil fuels and minerals.
However, it was possible for Western multinational companies to set up production facilities in Russia until decades before the military conflict broke out in Ukraine.
The more populous regions of Russia are physically closer to Europe than China, and the lower cost of transportation could offset the higher cost of labor in Russia.
All things considered, the talk of Putin’s dictatorial control of Russia by the Western media appears to be factually correct.
However, when the West blames Russia for military aggression in Ukraine, it does not take into account the extent to which past US Presidents such as George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have intervened.
US military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen resulted in the deaths of about half a million people in these countries.
China’s current global stature can be gauged from how it quietly mediated between Iran and Saudi Arabia and how French President Emmanuel Macron commented on Taiwan during his visit to China from 5-8 April 2023 Be cautious in doing.
India has definitely made the West uncomfortable by not going against Russia. Along with this, it is also necessary for India to oppose the steps of West China and stop its rise.
The West may selectively support India, but only to balance it with Communist China.
Last week, “All Quiet on the Western Front” won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. In this film, the scene of the death of a young man during the First World War reminds us of the horrors of armed conflicts.
Demanding the West to stop interfering in Russia may sound like a trumpet. It may be in the interest of Western countries led by the US to break Russia so that they can have easy access to its natural resources.
Similarly, China’s build-up and intimidation along the border with India is also on a set pattern.
