Far from being a great power, the fact that India worries this much over such a remote area just goes to show how much stock Indian politicians and India-leaning observers place in the most trivial of irritations. I suppose it's somewhat legitimizing to have China be the one to "aggressively" patrol India's borders given that no one seems to care or place much stock in the fact that Pakistan does far more and far worse with greater regularity along a more densely populated border. Must have to do with the fact that Pakistan is poor, small, and relatively weak.
China, on the other hand, is possessed of the world's number two economy, the world's largest army, one of the world's largest air forces and navies. It gives India a certain amount of pride to be the David standing up oh so bravely to the Chinese Goliath but for the fact that in the Biblical tale David actually won the one fight he was in with the giant.
Border incursions are a fact of life in the world, even here in the US. The Mexican military, for example, regularly crosses our Southern border and oftentimes in support of illegal activities such as people- or drug smuggling. Yet the US does not react with the sort of visceral paranoia and bombastic chest thumping that India engages in vis a vis China. Mind you, I'm talking about Mexican military incursions, not illegal immigration which is, by and large, a totally separate issue. Yes, we deploy our national guard against illegal immigrants, but not so much so against the Mexican federal army. In fact, those episodes tend to be downplayed for some odd reason or another.
But to India, every incursion is a crisis to be met with high level meetings and briefings and the formation of elite special mountain commando border strike corps or special border security commando mountain forces or whatever the nom de guerre happens to strike their fancy that month.
What we are talking about here is not safeguarding Indian territory or even Indian civilians. China has no interest in conquering India because to be quite frank India represents more mouths they would have to feed and keep quiet. There are currently just about nine and a half million Uyghurs in the Xinjiang or less than one percent of the Chinese population. These 9.5 million represent an almost intolerable security threat to Beijing, so why in the world would China want to a few million more Indians, Bhutanese, or anyone else? In terms of territory, the amount of raw materials there can be found easier and cheaper elsewhere.
What we are talking about is a distraction meant to buoy the Indian national spirit. "We may seem poor and we may lack indoor plumbing and our streets may be running freely with raw sewage, but look! China wants what we have, so we must be awesome!"
This is an exercise in maintaining the facade of relevance, not securing a vital interest against a clear and present danger. Given the preponderance of Chinese firepower in the region compared to what India can muster, had China wanted these regions they would have taken them by force years ago. That China hasn't only goes to show that this region is nowhere as important as India would like the rest of the world to think it is.
