China’s India War by Bertil Lintner

Author:Bertil Lintner [Lintner, Bertil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N/A
ISBN: 9780199091638
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2017-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

The ‘new’ ILD emerged at a time when the Cultural Revolution was running out of steam, and more infighting erupted within the CCP. After the clashes with the Soviet Union on the River Ussuri in March 1969, Mao’s then right-hand man, Lin Biao, was at the height of his power. He was the one who had initiated the publication of Mao’s famous Little Red Book and played a dominant role during the Cultural Revolution. But then, unexpectedly to most observers in the outside world, he died in an air crash in Mongolia on 13 September 1971. What actually happened is still unclear, but in the official version of events, Lin Biao, his wife Ye Qun, their son Lin Liguo, and six subordinates were supposedly on their way to the Soviet Union following a failed coup attempt against Mao in China.

The circumstances of the alleged plot as well as the crash remain hazy to this day. The official Chinese version says the plane ran out of fuel. According to conspiracy theorists, however, the plane was shot down by a missile fired by either Soviet or Chinese forces. But a report on the crash compiled by Mongolia’s intelligence agencies with help from Soviet experts after the crash suggests it was due to pilot error. The plane’s three engines were not damaged before the crash, which would have been the case if it had been fired upon. The plane slammed into the ground at a speed of between 500 and 600 kilometres per hour, and the resulting explosion was followed by a fire that burned for a ‘long time’, the report said, suggesting there was plenty of fuel on board.56

It was at this time that the Indian intervention in East Pakistan, which led to the formation of Bangladesh, occurred—and it is worth noting that Islamabad got only limited support from Beijing in that conflict that was tearing Pakistan apart. According to another classified report compiled by the CIA after the Bangladesh war,

In fact, China did much less for Pakistan in 1971 than they had done during the Indian-Pakistani war of 1965. This time the Chinese avoided diversionary actions on the Indian-Chinese border. In contrast to 1965, they kept their border patrolling down, avoided moving bombers into Tibet, and made only pro forma protests of alleged Indian violations well after the event. In this way, the Chinese reduced any Indian concern about Chinese intervention—concern which, the Chinese reasoned, might induce New Delhi to allow the Soviets an enlarged role in South Asia.57

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