China's Game Plan in Ladakh

"India should be happy with what has been achieved" China said during the Military Commander Level talks in April 2021, while retracting from its commitment related to troops withdrawal from Gogra and Hot Spring areas, in the Himalayan region. This was indicative of China's nefarious game plan in the Ladakh region. China has been nurturing ambitions of being the sole regional power in South Asian and Indo-Pacific regions in the short-term and being a credible global power-capable of countering USA eventually. With rise in stature of India in global political arena, China realised that India would be the only obstacle in its becoming the sole regional power and felt the need for clipping India's wings. Ironically, reasons for China's increasing belligerence lie in India's historical misreading of China's intentions and its weak reactions. The time has now come for India to take a holistic view of China's intentions in general and its moves in the Ladakh sector in particular and recalibrate its own response, commensurate with China's bigger game plan. This monograph thus attempts to evaluate historic Indo-China border dispute, Tibet and Ladakh region's connect with it, reasons for various actions China may adapt for engaging with India, need for holistic review of Indo-China relations by India and some viable options for India to safeguard its military, maritime, economic, geopolitical interest in the regional and global arenas.