The confrontation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China is the result of Beijing wanting to punish New Delhi for rejecting the multinational infrastructure programme -- Belt and Road Initiative -- and has nothing to do with the border dispute between the two countries, according to a veteran Swedish journalist.

In an interview to The Irrawaddy, Bertil Lintner said that China is taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, flexing its muscles in the Indo-Pacific region with a new security law in Hong Kong, Chinese fighter jets entering Taiwan's airspace, the ramming of Vietnamese and Philippine fishing boats in the disputed South China Sea, a month-long standoff between a Malaysian oil exploration vessel and a Chinese survey ship in the same waters, and an open confrontation with the Indians along the LAC.

"First of all, the confrontation along the LAC between India and China has nothing to do with the border as such, if it should be on this or that barren rock in an uninhabited area," he said.

"It is a question of strategic rivalries between Asia's two giants and, more specifically, China's wanting to punish India for rejecting its multinational infrastructure programme, the BRI, and show the neighbours who rule the roost in the region," he added.

China wants to become the world's leading superpower, and those aggressive postures and the more "benign" BRI are part of that long-term strategy, he said.

Tensions have been escalating along the LAC since May. The Chinese and Indian troops had engaged in a number of confrontations along the LAC.

ET Live