Is China Desperate to Teach India Another Lesson?

First it was Arunachal Pradesh, then Sikkim, and now it is Ladakh. There has been a shifting pattern in Chinese mischief along the Indian borders. But more curiously, when reports of Chinese incursions hit the headlines, China denied them while India played them down. This has been a familiar pattern for decades and to cite few instances, when Arunachal Chief Minister Mukut Mithi claimed in 2000 that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had made ‘repeated incursions’ along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and built a mule trail at Kaila Pass in Dibang Valley district, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government played down the reports and China denied them. In June 2003, when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on a visit to China, PLA soldiers made a massive intrusion and detained an Indian security patrol in the eastern sector. China denied the allegation.