For India, diplomacy with China flows through the barrel of a gun

As Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepare for their second informal summit in the southeastern coastal town of Mamallapuram this weekend, the Indian Army has begun a massive military exercise 100km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto border between India and China – in India’s northeast.Code-named “Him Vijay”, this multiphase exercise will test the battle-readiness of the Indian Army’s newly minted Mountain Strike Corps (MSC) at an altitude…