India Will Be More Humiliated Than After 1962 War: Chinese Mouthpiece

State-run media in China has been engaging in open posturing of the communist nation's military capabilities since the standoff with India at Ladakh started in early May.

In recent weeks, frequent reports on new weapons, rapid troop deployment capabilities and army exercises along the border with India have been a common sight on Global Times, the Chinese regime's mouthpiece for a global audience.

These tendencies have increased in the past week, following the clash at Galwan that has left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead and triggered the worst bout of tension between the two nations in over 50 years.

On Sunday, the Global Times quoted Chinese defence experts to warn that "India knows it can’t have a war with China". The Global Times referred to growing nationalist sentiment and outrage and warned, "India will be more humiliated than after the 1962 border conflict with China if it cannot control anti-China sentiment at home and has a new military conflict with its biggest neighbour."

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that there was no intrusion into India, the publication reported, "Chinese observers said Modi is trying to respond to the nationalists and hardliners with tough talk, but he understands his country cannot have further conflict with China, so he is also making an effort to cool tensions."

Lin Minwang, a professor at Fudan University's Centre for South Asian Studies in Shanghai, told the Global Times "Modi's remarks will be very helpful to ease the tensions, because as the prime minister of India, he has removed the moral basis for hardliners to further accuse China."

"It is normal to see heated nationalism in India, but we don't need to worry whether nationalism will hijack the policymaking of India to further provoke China. When India is in conflict with Pakistan or other neighbours, nationalism might drive New Delhi to take actual operations, but when it comes to China, it is a different story," Lin said.

Intriguingly, Global Times claimed China has not released its casualty figures from the Galwan clash as it wants to "avoid escalation". “... the reason why China did not release the number [of casualties] is that China also wants to avoid an escalation, because if China's casualties number less than 20, the Indian government would again come under pressure," the Global Times reported.

"China's priority for using military force is never in the west against India but in the east, such as reunification with Taiwan, so China's deployment in the border region is less than the Indian side," Lin said. “However, if conflict breaks out, China's overwhelming advantages on transportation and military industry will help the People's Liberation Army to acquire an absolute strategic and tactical advantage against the India on the front-line.”

The Global Times projected the Indian military as being undisciplined. "Indian forces use weapons bought from different countries, which many [sic] not coordinate with each other well, not to mention their undisciplined troops who can blow up their own submarine in a dockyard and shoot down a friendly helicopter, observers noted," the Global Times claimed. The incidents being referred to appear to be the explosion on the INS Sindhurakshak submarine in Mumbai in 2013 and the accidental shooting down of an Indian Air Force helicopter during the Pakistan Air Force attack in response to the Balakot strike last February.

"In a potential self-defence counter-attack, China will secure its own territory and not likely claim Indian territory after emerging victorious, but the battle will deeply hurt India so much that global position and economy would go backwards to decades ago," the article concluded.