shchinese,
congrats on ur recent unbanning.
Well,if history is anything to go by ,china didnt even sneeze in 71,during Siachin conflict or in kargil
,for the sake of its _O_N_L_Y_ ally.
And you, Khajur, shouldn't underestimate to what extent PRC
may do for its ONLY ally, especially when the time counts. Don't know much about Kargil - to me it was but a skirmish.
1971 was quite different a kettle of fish, as shchinese stated. China was in the middle of a quasi-civil war, which was only ended by an army/intelligence coup five years later.
Second, madam Gandhi chose that time of the year to intervene for a reason, and she chose well.
Third, which is most important - no ally can "save" a country when a country isn't quite sure it wants to stay as one. This applies to every state in the world, including China itself, and India.
There is some recent info that the CCP top echelon was more daunted by the "complexities" of the East-West Pakistani situation itself than by anything else.
Moreover, 1971 is to India what losing a horse is to an old man (see the parable of an old man losing a horse). I am not at all certain looking back at this time that Madam Gandhi did India any favours.
From a purely strategic POV, instead of having
one foe (a "united"-on-paper, but separated geographically and culturally) which would be much, much more susceptible to Bharat's "blackmail" and all manners of hassle - now you get
two enemies.
Thus she may have done for Pakistan what Pakistan would never have done for itself otherwise. And in the process made Pakistan much more viable and defensible. This also frees up Pakistan to pursue its northerly thrust into Khorasan on the strength of its Pashto connections ...
Anyways, I digress ...
And I am surprised this threat is still going!