In this episode of Interpreting India, host Saheb Singh Chadha is joined by Aadil Brar, reporter at TaiwanPlus News and contributor to "Views from Taipei", to examine China’s evolving strategy across its contested borders. What connects China’s actions across these frontiers? How is it creating a new military normal around Taiwan? And has its assertiveness resulted in negative consequences for itself? This is the third and final episode in our special Interpreting China series, based on Views from Taipei, a collection of essays by young Indian scholars on China. Aadil’s essay, "From Land Border to the High Seas: Beijing Signaling at India, Taiwan, and the Philippines," provides the foundation for this wide-ranging conversation.
In this conversation, Aadil Brar and Saheb Singh Chadha examine how China's strategic behavior across the India-China border, Taiwan Strait, and South China Sea reflects a broader effort to create regional influence and redefine border security under Xi Jinping. Aadil explains how Beijing frames these actions as issues of national sovereignty, using military presence and political rhetoric to entrench its claims.
They explore the “chain reaction” thesis, which suggests that China prepares for simultaneous tensions on multiple fronts in anticipation of external responses—especially in the event of a Taiwan contingency. This perspective, Aadil argues, helps explain China’s sustained activity along the LAC.
The discussion also delves into China’s efforts to normalize military exercises around Taiwan, making it harder to distinguish military exercises from wartime operations. While these tactics project strength, they may also be prompting diplomatic recalibration as China confronts the strategic consequences of its assertiveness.
Episode Contributors
Aadil Brar is a TV reporter for TaiwanPlus News based in Taipei. Prior to this, he was the China News Reporter for Newsweek and wrote columns for The Print India. His experience includes working with the BBC World Service and National Geographic, covering topics such as international affairs, geopolitics, environmental conservation, and border conflicts. In 2016, he received the National Geographic Young Explorer Grant.
Saheb Singh Chadha is a senior research analyst in the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. His research focuses on China’s foreign and security policies, India-China relations, and India’s military modernization. He is broadly interested in the geopolitics of South Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
Additional Readings
Views From Taipei: Essays by Young Indian Scholars on China by Vijay Gokhale, Suyash Desai, Amit Kumar, and Aadil Brar