Well the Sino Indian war is much more a testament to the sheer incompetency and spinelessness of the then prime minister of India. He was caught off guard with the blatant abuse of Indian trust by China. There were no clear directives and because of this reinforcements were too late. The Indian Air Force at that time was vastly superior to what China had but again the fear and incompetence of Nehru got the better of him and the nation.
My point is that war doesn't show a strength of Chinese army as much as it shows the gigantic fail on the Indian side.
India has always felt that they had an understanding with China about the border. However they ignore the fact that China felt threatened by Soviet/Indian friendship.
Often they blame Nehru for being naïve, whilst at the same time blaming China for betrayal. I don't think those two arguments are very compatible.
In the end it was probably beneficial for India. They modernised their army, which let them defeat (Chinese ally) Pakistan pretty comprehensively.
But anyway, the Chinese military was pretty efficient in this war, which goes against the original article.
Every country by default assumes that they have an understanding with neighbours about it's borders. Of Course that doesn't stop anybody from trying to grab a piece.
As far as the two arguments go, I don't see the incompatibility. Can you share your thoughts about this?
Chinese approach was rather brute force, they just poured a lot of soldiers there, far from efficient.
As far as the two arguments go, I don't see the incompatibility. Can you share your thoughts about this?
If it was a "betrayal" then Nehru wasn't naïve (because betrayal implies deliberately misleading). OTOH, if Nehru was naïve, then it wasn't a betrayal (because it was so clear to everyone except Nehru that something was going to happen).
I think the truth is somewhere in between. I haven't studied it the conflict in depth, but it seems to me that China's policy towards the Indian border region changed (at least partially because of Indian actions), and India didn't realize it quickly enough.
Blatant abuse being the hostile behaviour shown by the Chinese just after the "hindi, chini bhai bhai" (Indian and Chinese are brothers.) catch phrase was what every Indian used to say. They attacked India and took away a huge part of Indian land.
This behaviour is typical for PRC. All they seem to want is new territory for themselves. Even now they dispute about Indian territory and frequently undermine borders by intruding.
My point is that war doesn't show a strength of Chinese army as much as it shows the gigantic fail on the Indian side.