China is a South Asian country, sharing borders with 14 countries including India. Governed by the Communist Party of China (CPC) since 1949, it has rapidly transformed into a global manufacturing hub and technological leader. Its significance lies in its economic rise in the region and hegemonic influence over smaller countries through loans and the Belt and Road Initiative.
As the epicenter of COVID-19, China faced global scrutiny over its pandemic response. Its strict zero-COVID policy and economic slowdowns have affected global markets, while trade disputes and technological restrictions with the US, EU, and India continue to shape its global relations.
China’s foreign policy is marked by its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), expanding influence through infrastructure projects, and territorial disputes, particularly in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and along the India-China border. It fought a war with India in 1962 over Aksai Chin, and tensions persist along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), most recent being the Galwan Valley clash in 2020.
Sam Pitroda was instrumental in bringing the telecom revolution to India. His Rural Automatic Exchange (RAX) developed with very inexpensive hardware brought digital telephony to the villages of India. It created a manufacturing ecosystem for advanced telephone switching systems. He has been very open and honest. I respect him and his views since I lived through the telecom revolution he ushered in. He was hounded out of India by V.P. Singh. Now even Congress under which government he brought the telecom revolution to India wants to distance itself from him. That is the state of affairs inside Congress now.
BJP too is doing a great disservice to the country if it keeps on portraying the Galwan incident as something very big. soldiers from both sides fell into the freezing waters of Galwan river that night after a brawl. No fire arms were used. The Galwan valley itself is at high altitude. There was no way to find the soldiers as the river was at spate that night. So all those soldiers from India and China who fell in the river died. For a reasonable perspective, more than 10000 times of that number of Indians die in road accidents in India. Does that make Modi government a threat to the country?