US Ignorance: The Geopolitics of India-China Relations and Delhi’s “Balancing Act” in the New Cold War
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It’s categorically false and offensive of Rep. Jake Auchincloss to imply that India is China’s junior partner by dint of supposedly being “plugged into the CCP’s operating system”, especially when those two are presently in a very dangerous standoff all across the Himalayas.
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Moreover, it isn’t truly the case that India is “an aggravating third party factor” when it comes to the US’ interests since those two share concerns about China’s rise and are actively working together in many dimensions to manage it.
Jake Auchincloss, a member of the bipartisan “US House of Representatives Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the US and the Chinese Communist Party”, expressed an embarrassing level of ignorance when it comes to India’s balancing act in the New Cold War. He demanded that that this historically neutral country be “plugged into the US operating system, not the CCP’s operating system”, and condemned it for supposedly being “an aggravating third party factor.”
His neo-colonial demand and counterfactual assessment of its relations with the US confirm that this declining unipolar hegemon continues operating under the influence of false notions when it comes to their bilateral ties. Instead of appreciating its rapid rise as the informal leader of the Global South amidst the impending trifurcation of International Relations, America continues its doomed campaign to pressure Indiainto unilaterally sacrificing its objective interests in order to serve its own.
It’s categorically false and quite frankly offensive of him to imply that India is China’s junior partner by dint of supposedly being “plugged into the CCP’s operating system”, especially when those two are presently in a very dangerous standoff all across the Himalayas. Moreover, it isn’t truly the case that India is “an aggravating third party factor” when it comes to the US’ interests since those two share concerns about China’s rise and are actively working together in many dimensions to manage it.
What appears to have triggered Auchincloss’ rant is India’s proud refusal to voluntarily submit itself to becoming his country’s largest-ever vassal state, which angers America’s neo-colonial policymakers to no end. This likely explains why he lost control and started spewing a bunch of easily debunked falsehoods. By doing so, however, he exposed just how delusional his country’s understanding of India’s balancing act is. This extends credence to rising concerns that the US cannot be considered a reliable partner.
To the contrary, for as much as those two cooperate in managing China’s rise, the US will seemingly never stop pressuring India to become its junior partner. This is an extremely disrespectful stance that stands in stark contrast to Russia’s sincere respect of its decades-long strategic partner’s multi-alignment policy. Not once has the Kremlin ever put forth the demands that the US just did through Auchincloss, which proves that the latter’s so-called “rules-based order” concept is chock-full of contradictions.
Instead of upholding international law and treating all countries as equals like they deserve, this notion is exploited as the basis upon which to arbitrarily impose double standards designed to advance America’s interests. In this particular case, the US regularly warns that the Sino-Russo Entente supposedly wants to coerce other countries into vassalhood status, while that’s precisely what Auchincloss just candidly demanded of India upon declaring that it be “plugged into the US’ operating system”.
In reality, the only “operating system” that India is “plugged into” is its own, exactly as it should be. No country should ever subserviate themselves to any other, nor should any country ever demand that they do. Auchincloss’ rant shows just how embarrassingly ignorant the US remains of India’s balancing act in the New Cold War, which doesn’t bode well for the future of bilateral relations since it very strongly suggests that America will continue pressuring that country into surrendering its strategic autonomy.
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This article was originally published on Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.
Featured image is from the author
