China and India are two of the worlds fasted growing countries, and two of the most populus,
with over 1.3 billion people living in each nation.
Together, these two countries make up between a quarter to a third of the worlds entire
population.
The pair have had a tense history when it comes to boarders and just last year got into
a hefty dispute.
What would happen if these two major countries went to war?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions – the channel that looks to answer
a whole host of queries from the scientific, to the science fiction, from the political
to the apocalyptical.
Today we are delving into sceneario guessing as we ask What if China and India go to war?
Before we get into answering the question laid out in this video, I want to ask you
guys would do if your country was at war?
I guess it depends on the circumstances, but generally speaking I don’t think war is
ever helpful.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below.
SO, China and India have actually already been to war – most recently in the 1962
Sino Indian war 0 the repercussions of which are still ongoing.
The war started when India opposed to China’s occupation of Tibet.
China launched two planned attacks and the war was over quickly with India ceding control
of a section of their land.
While the war was over quickly with just 3,250 casualties on the Indian side and 722 on the
Chinese, it never really reached a resolution and the boarder of China and India by Tibet
and the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is still not fully defined.
Indeed in 2017, tensions flared again between the two nations, who both sent troops to the
area, before cooling off again.
India and China also come to blows when it comes to China’s formation of territory
in the South China Sea – which isn’t unique as many countries are pretty uneasy about
the new islands China appears to be making.
In 2011, tensions were heightened when an Indian Assault vessel sailed in the disputed
South China Sea…which China didn’t take too well as they feel that they own the waters.
So – if war did erupt, It would likely be over one of these two key issues - boarders
or waters, which are both basically territorial.
If the pair did fight, the location would play a huge role – a lot of terrain in the
area is difficult to navigate.
The disputed boarder regions in the North are very mountainous, and the South China
sea is also challenging – although China, with their arguably illegal new islands, may
have and advantage there.
China and India both have very similar populations.
China is coming in at 1.386 billion, and India with 1.339.
While their active military personnel numbers are similar, their budgets are very different.
China’s is 228 billion US dollars and India’s is just 55.9 billion.
China also has many more soldiers in reserve.
China has 7,760 tanks to India’s 4,426…
China has around 2,000 more aircraft than India, too.
Sadly for India, their naval presence is also much stronger, with 780 total naval assets
to 214.
Winning an oceanic war with China would be very hard for India, and a China simply has
more land artillery – so chances are, if there was a war between these two countries
alone, China would likely win.
Although when has a war ever just been fought between two nations?
The world is far more complicated and politically entwined to just let two of the biggest nations
in the world go at it!
Where is the world police, Team Merica in all of this?
If China and India were at war, I imagine huge efforts would be made by bodies such
as NATO to quell the anger.
If negotiations broke down and relations soured with third parties, I imagine that the Unites
States would back India, always looking to deal a blow to communism and seeing China
as a threat to their own economic standing.
Although I would say Japan would support China on this occasion – recognizing them as an
important neighbouring ally.
The UK and India have strong ties, so perhaps great Britian would lend support for the commonwealth
country.
While India’s position is looking pretty sturdy with powerful allies… let’s not
forget Russia.
It is likely if the US were drawn into the fray, Russia would back China…which would
then generate tensions between Russia and America…which is how a whole new world war
could get started.
Perhaps best to leave China and India to negotiate their own issues.
To be honest, war between any two or more countries is deeply troubling, but China and
India, on paper anyway, are two of the most level headed when it comes to war waging.
Both China and India have nuclear weapons.
If Russia and the Unites States fought, there would be temptations to press those big red
buttons, but both India and China have declared No First Use Policies – declaring they will
not fire a nuclear weapon before another country attacks them with a nuke of their own.
If war between the pair of countries ever turned nuclear, one of them would need to
break their pledge.
Honestly, if China and India did ever go to war, the rest of the world could only hope
both kept it clean and strategic like in the Sino Indian war.
I would imagine, with both countries keen to keep peace, it wouldn’t be a long war.
Meanwhile, though, I wonder what would happen to both’s economic exports?
Both provide cheap labour for the rest of the world – what impact would a slow of
production have on worldwide ecomomy?
As always, we hope that this situation never ever happens, humans digress when shots are
fired, but at least when it comes to the modern politics of these two nations, I imagine war
wouldn’t be the potentially world ending affair that could come from other nations
amid conflicts.
What do you guys think?
What do you think would happen if India and China went to war?
Let me know in the comments section down below!
Also if you like this kind of content, please do give this video a thumbs up so we know!
I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I’ll catch you in the next video, but until then….
Stay curious, stay alert and never ever stop questioning.