Shekhar Gupta: Art of threatening war

What if the Chinese military build-up is just coercive diplomacy? India shouldn't blink but believe the threat of war is real and be prepared

WHY have the Chinese ratcheted up a war-like situation and piled up their forces with the heavy stuff in Ladakh? What is it that they want from India? How India should respond will depend on our reading of this.

Not surprisingly, this has spawned an industry of Sinologists, geo-strategists, and military-planners. Besides, we keep falling back on the odd words of strategic wisdom inherited from Sun Tzu or Kautilya, with Clausewitz and Machiavelli occasionally surfacing like an item number in a Hindi movie. For the ancient duo, you can attribute just about anything to them, as people often do about