178 { China’s Quest
Rather than withdraw when challenged, Chinese forces began to build
outposts counter-encircling and cutting off the new Indian positions. Mao
also gave strict orders that Chinese forces were not to open fire except at his
personal order. Mao did not want to stumble into an accidental war. Indian
leaders were less cautious. In July 1962, Indian Army Headquarters gave dis-
cretion to post commanders to fire on Chinese troops that threatened Indian
outposts.^32 In September 1962, when India’s chief of General Staff gave the
final orders to Indian forces to drive Chinese forces from atop the strategic
Thagla Ridge that dominated the territory just east of the Bhutan, he showed
immense confidence: “Experience in Ladakh [Aksai Chin] has shown that a
few rounds fired at the Chinese would cause them to run away.”^33
Mao recognized early on that it would be hard to make Nehru and India
change course. “A person sleeping in a comfortable bed is not easily roused by
someone else’s snoring,” he told a CMC meeting in February 1962.^34 Beijing
tried increasingly forceful methods to “wake” Nehru. In July 1962, PLA rules
of engagement were altered to allow PLA forces at the frontier to open fire
to defend themselves in extreme situations. Localized armed clashes pro-
liferated. China’s MFA and media carried increasingly ominous warnings.
India should rein itself in at the precipice. China was prepared to wage a
tit-for-tat struggle with India. If India played with fire, it would be consumed
by fire. In early September, a powerful force of about 800 Chinese soldiers
descended from Thagla Ridge to encircle an Indian base recently established
at the bottom of that massive ridge. For twelve days, a standoff existed before
the Chinese force withdrew. This was a Chinese demonstration of military
preparedness—and a warning.
While trying to persuade India to abandon the Forward Policy, Beijing
moved to minimize prospects for American or Soviet support for India if
war became necessary. In May 1962, Zhou Enlai ordered Ambassador Wang
Bingnan to return to Warsaw and reopen talks with the United States. The
Nationalists on Taiwan were loudly preparing to “recover the mainland” via
invasion and soliciting US support for that effort. In Laos, the United States
and China were locked in confrontation, and Zhou feared that Washington
might use Laos as a corridor for a Nationalist invasion of China. Wang was
able to secure from the US representative at Warsaw a statement that “under
present conditions” the United States would not support a Nationalist inva-
sion.^35 Beijing also moved to reconstruct, temporarily, its security ties with
the Soviet Union. The US announcement of its discovery of Soviet missiles in
Cuba on October 15 initiated the Cuban missile crisis. Confronting the real
possibility of war with the United States, Moscow sought Chinese support.
Moscow and Beijing came together for several weeks and supported each
other against the United States and India. China’s assault on India came in
the midst of the Cuban standoff between the Soviet Union and the United
States.