According to the United Nations, this week, India will outstrip China as the world’s most populous country. This monumental change of status between the two Asian giants that share a long, militarized Himalayan border indicates the burgeoning possibility of change in their respective global statuses, enhanced competition, and the chance of war, according to experts.
Demographics play a key role in geopolitics which presents both opportunities and challenges, according to experts who said if India’s policymakers overcome the challenges, the population increase translates into massive political, economic, and military power, which threatens adversaries like China.
“You can compare this situation with US-China competition. Power shift theory indicates that the ‘declining US’ is threatened by rising China. Before WWI, declining Britain was threatened by rising Germany. Now India is catching up with China, and China is worrying about India’s rise,” Dr. Satoru Nagao, a visiting fellow at the Washington-based The Hudson, told The Epoch Times in an email….