ANALYSIS/OPINION:
China enters September despised by scores of countries over its constant bullying, lying and expansionist incursions. The isolation is evident as global cynicism turns into overt antagonism, making the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) desperate to search for a friendly face on any continent.
It finally found a friend in Cameroon, at the crossroads of Western and Central Africa. The official Chinese media a few days ago went agog with an “international” event involving the two: Cameroon conferred its prestigious military award, the Knight of the Order of Valour, to Chinese Defense Attache to Cameroon. The occasion marked the departure of the Chinese officer at the end of his four-year mission in Yaounde.
The event is significant, representing the one and only positive mention of China by no country other than the debt-trapped “friends of China” in all of 2020. It is another matter altogether that Cameroon is so much in China’s debt that it is willingly chopping away its rainforests to satisfy Chinese insatiable hunger for rare, African timber.
The Cameroon award affair is but a blip in the ocean of global misgivings China is beginning to bear the brunt of. It is puny compared to the mighty disdain India has shown. This is with reference to the Sino-India stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh sector.
India appears vexed with the relentless Chinese attempts to intrude into its side of the LAC and claim that the entire territory that China eyes is Chinese. Unlike on previous occasions, India has adopted a tooth-for-a-tooth policy vis-a-vis China, nearly ending its hitherto accommodative attitude.
Overcoming initial confusion about its stand, India today dares China to intrude. Its generals have repeatedly announced they are in a state of readiness for any eventuality. That this is not lip service is evident from the Indian counter offensive to stop Chinese intrusion by quickly scaling the mountain heights to ward off a potential incursion in Ladakh the other night.
As India builds up a unanimous public opinion backing its stand with China, China was forced to take a pause. Its defense minister repeatedly told his official media that he tried twice, even thrice, to invite his Indian counterpart for talks to settle the dispute. They eventually met in neutral Moscow. Such invites are rare coming from the Chinese side, particularly when China stakes a moral right to anything — land or sea — it fancies.
Source: Washington times