הימאַלייַאַן קלאַש באדינט ווי אַ פאָרשפּיל צו גלאבאלע רעסיטאַנסע

The Galwan clash of 15 June 2020 between soldiers of the Indian Army and troops of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) witnessed a number of firsts. It was the first bloody conflict between the two Himalayan neighbours in the last four decades that resulted in significant casualties to both sides, though the Chinese have hidden their numbers so far, as is their wont. It was the first time that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had initiated an aggressive action on the Line of Actual Control (AC) under the mistaken assumption that its newly reformed forces will be able to browbeat India into submission. The aftermath of Galwan saw a massive mobilisation of Indian Armed Forces in its Northern Theatre and witnessed unprecedented jointness amongst the three Services.

What Galwan did for the rest of the world has been documented in bits and pieces but never acknowledged fully. It served as a clarion call for a global resistance and provided a cause for democratic forces to rally against Chinese hegemony. What Galwan etched out clearly and starkly were two facts: Deng Xiaoping’s China which bided its time had been replaced by a wolf warrior under the control of princeling Xi Jinping and; China was willing to use force to change the democratic and liberal international world order. This set into motion a number of actions by different countries to counter China. While some did forcefully and in face of China’s undiplomatic parleys, some paid China in the same coin and  a number of small states resolutely faced off the dragon in their own subtle ways. Galwan therefore can be termed as Ground Zero or the Epoch of Resistance against China and the date inscribed in world history.

On 30 July itself, Malaysia sent a letter to the United Nations stating that China's maritime claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis and were in contravention to the United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS). Philippines threatened to invoke its mutual protection clause with the United States (US) against China on 22 Jun, one week after Galwan, and pressed for China to honour the 2016 judgment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) over claims to islands in the South China Sea. Ingress by Chinese ‘fishermen’ and militia members in the Whitsun Reef this March was responded in a reciprocal show of force by the Philippines Coast Guard and Navy, while the Defence Minister let loose a verbal spray of abuse against the Chinese wolf warriors on social media.

The European Union (EU), habitually considered by China as a lightweight and which was involved in a marathon discussion with China over a comprehensive trade agreement for seven long years, froze the ratification of the deal. Germany, which had the most to lose due to the dependence of its automobile manufacturing units in China and which had pushed the deal in December 2020, also chose to side with the EU leadership in censuring China. Interestingly Germany also came up with its own Indo-Pacific strategy in October 2020. The document mentions the potential boundary disputes in the region as well as potential for hegemony smartly avoiding the mention of China. Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga referred to Taiwan as a country recently while the upper house of Japan’s Diet voted to include Taiwan as a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s executive council.

Till now a discarded theory, the lab-leak hypothesis has gained traction in the international community with a number of scientific proofs pointing towards the culpability of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the virus escaping from its poorly maintained labs. The G7 Communique clearly chides China on its abysmal human rights record and called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full and thorough investigation of the origins of the coronavirus. Italy, one of the most badly hit countries in the first wave of Covid-19 due to its proximity to China’s businesses and one of the first ones to openly embrace the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has also promised to have a relook at the entire project during the same summit. The US has come out in the open to denounce China’s economic abuses and ensure a peaceful resolution to the cross-Straits issues, hinting at full support to Taiwan.

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