Immagine 4000km of borders, 7000 m. peaks and deep valley quite inhabited, British elegant officers tracing borders in 1841 between Tibet and India, yaks around eating stones, you will be near to the scenario of this mountain eternal war from 1962 between the two Asia giants. After the Tibet occupation from China, Nehru said that this was the palm of the hands and then China will take the fingers, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim. China never accepted the two British lines , Johnson line in North-West border between Kashmir and Tibet, where Chinese occupied Aksai Chin (Southern Tibet) in 1962 war, and Mac Carthey-Mac Donald in North-East border along Nepal, Bhutan, until now remained untouched. When I was a boy, I walked every summer with my father, officer in the First World War, along alpine fortification lines between Austria and Italy, running with my phantasy along long columns of troops moving slowly at 3/4000 m. in the snow with artillery on mules, digging barracks and caves in the rocks, making exploding peaks. These scene you can see along this mountain borders of India from 60 years, plus the modern military airplane competing and bombing at 7000 meters. But of course the environment is much more ostile and dangerous. When I was in Lhasa I could only move very slowly, because air lacks of oxygen, many times you go with buses along roads that you don’t find anymore returning, for continuous earth-quaking and landslides: this is the top of Asia and its climate conditions. During the night Chinese patrols move the stone pillars signing an uncertain border and during day you have patrols conflicts. The last case is of 20 Indian soldiers massacred by stones and by hands, not even firing.
Our time with global information permits to review, as in a movie ,scenes of our past history in other countries. So similar to First War World in alpine territories the India-China conflict, and the same for Iran-Iraq, millions dead war similar of Germany-France trenches First War . Nations go through similar conflicts in the same stage of development of our nation in 1915. Always the same difficulty to learn from history and the geopolitical laws very deterministic in their consequences. Two giants countries with so long border in common and uncertain delimitations. China pushing from Tibet on the small corridor between Nepal and Bhutan aims to make explosive the fragmented ethnic tribes on India East to the Burma border. On the North-West border China exploit the Pakistan- India conflict to find new penetration roads for its Silk Way logistic project, already directed to Pakistan harbour of Gwadar, trying in any way to cut out Indian peninsular control of maritime routes to West.
If China wants as by its official words to have a leadership role in a new world order, can’t continue to apply what we call “artichoke policy”, eating leave by leave territory and sea from India to Vietnam until to Philippines. The USA- China growing tension will mean another cool war in the next years if not a real Third one. We must hope in a new role of Russia in the dialogue between the two biggest powers, to find a sort of Yalta compromise, as Putin in these days wrote, to assure a Westfalian world order, Kissinger vision type.
