Can you share the source for this story ?
There is no public media source whether PM said its due to Risat-1 going down. But the media said the missile system was under development since 2016 after the government gave the go ahead, so if you put two and two together, the timeline makes sense.
Chinese are big on saving face. Taking out a civilian satellite would have repercussions in the global community. JeM listing at the UN isn't over yet. The americans have said they will raise the matter via a resolution in the UNSC. This puts China on the spot as these resolutions are not closed door affairs where we never find out what the reasons for "technical hold" are and why they need more time. In any case that time is over and China has to decide. If they go against the listing and block it then the US will raise it at the UNSC and their hypocrisy will be exposed regarding the treatment of their own muslims over supporting a known terrorist. If they do vote for listing then they are letting the Paks down. It's lose lose for China.
China has lot invested in Pak their OBR and the port they built. So I doubt they will vote any different.
With a event like creating debris, you cannot point a finger directly. When we did the ASAT test the USAF sent their
RC-135s to spy on us, even they can only detect debris and may not be able to detect the launch if its beyond their sensor range be it radar or space based sensors. So there is no conclusive proof to accuse them.
India has used the time raising the listing issue to build consensus. To bring the world around to our way of fighting terrorism. More times China blocks, more time we get to tell the world our side of the story. We have succeeded there as no govt condemned the Balakote strike. We isolated Pakistan well on that point.r,
It is precisely the threat of trade war that gives the US leverage over China. Just see how they got them to work with North Korea. What China does is give local companies a monopoly, allow them to become national champions, then subsidises them, then turns them loose on the world where they can underbid everybody else and drive people out of business. There is no level playing field, and this is why Trump is trying to get them to reform. He is doing similar with us. Forcing reform that we should have done but have not.
Against failed beggar state like Pakistan sure. Against china its different ball game, unless we become a economic super power with matching military, against china other countries will not condemn or take our side, accept like another super power like the US.
Even Russia won't help us because of chinese investments in russia.
Now, as for Trump & Balakote. All i can say is his administrations handling has been outstanding. They worked a lot for us behind the scenes. They pressured the Paks to return the pilot. They pressured the Paks to back down. Pretty much all of Paks other friends did so too. No interference, no lectures, no telling us to exercise restraint instead its right to self defense. Awesome work by the Americans. And i should say the rest of the world too. The deal is world will help if we don't go in guns blazing. They are on our side. They are on our side because the world has realised things cannot continue as before.
Not sure how much Trump had influence on Balakote. He would have been bragging a bit more if he had any active role to play, after the disappointing NK-USA summit.
It's probably the combined pressure from Pentagon and other Middle east countries and Indian military retaliation threat.
Eight years ago China wanted to turn the China seas into their seas. Eight years later they have failed in this mission. Canada, France, US, Australia sail their destroyers through on freedom of navigation missions and China can't do a thing about it. Taiwan isn't cowed, the Indonesians block them and the Philippinos could probably run the Chinese off if they wanted. Those islands they built in the sea are useless. It's a low cost way to have some presence without using ships. A learning experiment for the PLA.
They have so far failed but the pace at which they are building ships and planes, is to challenge the US. In another 10 years they will be militarily be only second to the USA, perhaps second only in technology and may match them in sheer numbers. The gap between them and india is increasing by the day in their favour.
We need 5th gen planes in another 10 years in operation. I don't see that happening.
