Can India afford not to stand up to Chinese aggression over Taiwan?

As New Delhi and Washington prepare for major joint drills despite objections from Beijing, analysts warn India that China’s bullish behaviour ‘won’t end with Taiwan’. Shweta Sharma reports

Chinese president Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at a Brics summit in Xiamen, China in 2017 (AFP via Getty)

Amid mounting international concern that China could attempt to take over Taiwan by force, India and the United States are set to stage major high-altitude war games in the Himalayas this month – the closest ever to the Chinese border – in a move that has drawn strong objections from Beijing.

Some analysts fear a disproportionate response to the drills from China, which remains in a state of heightened military engagement along sections of its Himalayan border with India since tensions there flared into deadly clashes in 2020.

The world watched with alarm as China responded in dramatic fashion to a US congressional visit to Taiwan, led by House speaker Nancy Pelosi, in August. China fired ballistic missiles over the island as part of its biggest ever military exercise in the region, an apparent dry run for a full-scale invasion.