Quote:The Communist Party of China tabloid has thus declared open war with India in the diplomatic arena. The rhetoric harks back to the 1960s and ’70s. Perhaps what is galling for China is that on top of India’s assiduous courting of Vietnam and quasi-alliance with Japan to push back at China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, India has raised the bar by challenging its “territorial sovereignty” over Doklam. It is a blunt message to New Delhi that any trespass into China’s core interests will come at a price.

The advent of a “great game” on the South Asian chessboard may provide India’s small neighbors with more space and wherewithal to negotiate much harder deals with New Delhi than they ever were capable of striking during the past seven decades. In strategic terms, China seems to think that South Asia’s Gulliver can be tied down by the region’s Lilliputians. The old hackneyed thesis of the “string of pearls” seems to be coming true.