The Global Times (June 9) published an article captioned 'India may create new border conflict to shift attention from worsening economic, pandemic conditions: expert'. It quoted Qian Feng, Director of the Research Department at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University, as saying that most Chinese and Indian soldiers have disengaged, though consensus has yet to be achieved in the remaining areas (such as the Hot Springs and Depsang Plains), the standoff scale is much smaller with a less significant impact. It noted that due to the epidemic spike in India, face-to-face talks have been suspended, but the two countries have been maintaining communication through military and diplomatic channels and the hotline and telephone communications are still available. The Global Times added that "some viewed the current China-India border situation much better than the same period last year, but experts warned that if the remaining stalemate persists, it will be detrimental to military-to-military relations and the stability of the western section of China-India border." Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on June 9 that if the economy and epidemic continues to worsen in India, India might start a new conflict on the border. He said "India has a political tradition of always looking for border issues to distract attention when there is a crisis at home. China needs to be very vigilant about this." Qian Feng added China's infrastructure along the border is well built and although there are not many troops on the front line, they can always be reinforced from the second line.
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