Since April this year, China's India strategy has been implemented smoothly. As Beijing expected, the situation has been changing.

In other words, whatever China wants India to do, India will do it.

It is usually difficult for the outside world to predict China's long-term strategy and short-term tactics. To achieve this, the outside world needs to rely on China's official media, or the reports of Chinese think tanks and articles occasionally published by Chinese media.

However, China's long-term strategy to India seems quite clear.

Beijing now doesn't see India as a competitor because its economic and military strength lags far behind that of China, but Beijing does see India as a potential future competitor. As a result, it wants to put obstacles in place to prevent India from becoming China's future competitor (say, 30 years later).

According to the forecasts of various international organizations, China's competitor will no longer be the United States, but India by 2050 or later. The world economic forum, for example, predicts that India's economic strength will surpass that of the United States by 2030. However, Standard Chartered recently revised its forecast that India will become the world's second largest economy by 2050.

Indian strategists and policymakers are excited that India will become the world's largest economy by 2050. But they have not taken concrete measures to ensure that India will follow this path of economic growth.

That's why Indian strategists claim to be dealing with a new era in which the world order is in the process of rebalancing.

This has been mentioned from time to time in India's new book the road to India: a strategy for dealing with an uncertain world.

India's policymakers like to think about issues that their real economic, military and diplomatic capabilities cannot handle.

Similarly, territorial nationalism plays an important role in India's domestic politics. The Indian government cannot compromise with any country to resolve territorial disputes. If it does, it will lose its vote in the next election.

Beijing seems to be aware of these two psychological weaknesses in India.

Whether China wants to solve the border issue or delay solving the problem, it seems that its priority has always been how to achieve its long-term strategic goals. Clearly, the Chinese government does not want India to be too weak or too strong.

According to Su Jiesheng, the western idea is the same as that of China: a weak India is not in the interests of the west, but it is also not in the interests of the west to have an India that is strong in both economic and strategic aspects. In his speech to the Atlantic Council a year ago, Su Jiesheng mentioned the "Goldilocks principle", which means that an existing superpower trying to maintain a middle-sized or aspiring superpower is neither too strong nor too weak.

Naturally, China wants to be its leader, and India to be its own follower, both in Asia and in the future.

In his book, Su Jiesheng accurately points out that although the United States has fought many wars, it has not won a war, but China has won on all fronts without firing a single shot.

Therefore, China also hopes to defeat India on all fronts without firing a single shot.

Beijing hopes that while settling the border dispute, it will also overtake India strategically. If this is not done quickly, China will delay the settlement of the border confrontation in the Ladakh region. However, if India sees this strategy as a weakness and attacks China, Beijing will fight back strongly.

So what does China want to achieve by putting pressure on India on the border as it has done in the past eight months?

First, China wants to push India into a costly strategic competition.

China, for example, has been putting aircraft carriers into active service. In response, India felt that it had to buy expensive aircraft carriers from other countries, which exceeded its actual financial resources and needs.

While India still needs to buy such warships from abroad, China has been developing its own carrier building capabilities. If India wants to buy a Ford class aircraft carrier from the United States, it will cost about $13 billion.

India's current defense budget is $73.65 billion. As a result, the purchase of two aircraft carriers to compete with China will exhaust a third of its total defense budget. At the same time, China's domestic shipbuilding industry will localize its military infrastructure and create manufacturing jobs.

China will also test missiles of various ranges, forcing India to buy defense systems to defend them.

Second, China wants India to compete with it in military capabilities. In the fourteenth five year plan, China vowed to modernize its armed forces and to build the PLA into a world-class army. After China has built a world-class PLA, India will also be under pressure to modernize its own army at the same time.

To compete with China, India will be forced to expand its military. This will significantly increase defense spending.

Third, in order to modernize India's air force, navy and infantry, New Delhi will waste huge financial resources in military logistics supply.

A certain political situation in India will develop due to territorial nationalism, and the government will use scarce financial resources for unreasonable projects, such as building roads or airports in high-altitude areas of the Himalayas, or purchasing aircraft carriers.