Doklam then, Kashmir now: India and China again in the cross hairs – Thucydides Trap or Ah Q-ism

There is a general sense that backing Pakistan’s cause on the abrogation of Article 370 by India and by picking up its all-weather-ally’s cause for rallying international support at the UNSC, Beijing is ‘meddling’ in New Delhi’s internal matters. In many ways, this may be true. Do not forget Beijing’s impeccable consistency in choosing Pakistan over India, even though Islamabad is faulty on many counts – take Masood Azhar for one. Why Thucydides Trap? On who caused the Doklam standoff two years ago, many experts in the two countries and at least a section of the Western commentariat believe that the 73-day long military standoff was a result of Indian petulance. The raison d'être being the gradual emergence of a Thucydides trap, where an emerging power (India) threatens an established one (China). Why Ah Q-ism? The term has been coined in modern Chinese literature after Ah Q – the eponymous protagonist of Lu Xun’s The True Story of Ah Q – who is famous for his “Ah Q mentality”. Some Chinese academics have likened India’s Kashmir move to Ah Q-ism, a derogatory term used to describe someone who chooses to not face up to reality and deceives her-/himself into believing s/he is successful.

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