IS THERE A POLICY ON CHINA?

Amidst revived war of words between India and China, the Prime Ministers of both the countries, Dr Manmohan Singh and Wen Jiabo are slated to meet at Bangkok today when they go there to attend the East Asia Summit. There is an accuracy deficit when we say “war of words” because war can only be with the particicpation between two entities. While Chinese media has been using abusive language against India and its diplomats threaten India on a regular basis, Indian response is to go on the defensive except on one occasion when it pointed out China’s infrastructural activities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. So, the war is unilateral in the absence of a clear China policy for India. We can only pray, with Dr Singh’s track record being what it is, there is no repeat of Sharm-el-Sheikh in Bangkok.

When Indian media was talking about Chinese incursions on the border, Indian government was only trying to pretend as if nothing has happened. The nation was told that there was nothing to panic about such minor skirmishes on the border which are not uncommon on the disputed territories of any nation. The home ministry went a step further and warned criminal action against those correspondents who wrote about such incursions. Further, what was most unimaginable was that the government censored its own Prime Minister’s remarks on China when he addressed the military commanders. Alas, China does not take note of this “good-neighbour” conduct of India.

Now, the issue has become a full-blown controversy with China’s intentions becoming quite clear. Our China friends and those who supported China at the time of 1962 war were also making noises that what was happening on the border must be the handiwork of China’s border police and it may not have anything to do with the country’s rulers. But, will they change their tune after the People’s Daily editorial on October 14?

One should remember that there is no free press in Peoples Republic of China, unlike India, and People’s Daily is the official organ of the Communist Party of China and its subsidiary is Global Times which advocated “balkanisation” of India. The editorials in People’s Daily unmistakably reflect the official position as they are published only after getting clearance from the party higher-ups.

This is what People’s Daily said in its editorial. It describes India as hegemonistic power and talks about the common experience and common difficulties of both China and Pakistan in dealing with India with which both have unresolved border disputes. Look at the diplomatic mischief. It takes Pakistan along while talking about its “difficulties” while dealing with India.

The acerbic editorial further says “In recent years Indians have become more narrow-minded and intolerable of outside criticism as nationalist sentiment rises with some of them even turning to hegemony. Given the country’s history, hegemony is a hundred percent result of British colonialism. A previous victim of hegemony, it is developing its own hegemony. Obsessed with such mentality India turned a blind eye to the concessions China had repeatedly made over the disputed border issues and refused to drop the pretentious airs when dealing with neighbours like Pakistan”.

The editorial also gives gratuitous advice to India. “India which wants to be a super power needs to improve its relations with neighbours and abandon the recklessness and arrogance. For India, the ease of tension with China and Pakistan is the only way to become a superpower.”

Let us look at the “concessions” China has made to resolve issues between the two countries.

1. It blocked the Asian Development Bank loans to India for developmental projects because the project included one in Arunachal Pradesh.

2. It expressed serious reservations on our Prime Minister’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh for electoral activity. Elections have been taking place for decades in this border state and top politicians both in the government and in the Opposition have been visiting the state.

3. China has warned India against Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.

4. It started issuing separate visas to people of Kashmir origin to underscore the point that J&K is a disputed territory.

5. It showed J & K as a separate nation in its maps.

6. It establishes a spy station in Nepal to monitor India.

7. It has befriended all those countries around India like Pakistan, Lanka, Nepal and Myanmnar with a view to encircle India.

Just three years ago, when Chinese President Hu Jinto visited India he said China was keen on building a strong and cooperative relationship based on shared and common interests. He also said that India and China were willing to work hand in hand for long-term friendship and common development.

What happened in the last three years for China to reverse its stand? Dalai Lama, whose very name is allergic to China, has been staying as our guest for more than half-a-century. Arunachal Pradesh is not a new phenomenon. Why then this sudden hostility?

If we have to understand this, we have to understand human nature. After all, a country is no different from human being when it comes to the mindset and a country is again ruled by human beings. When a person becomes rich all of a sudden, he thinks big, acts big and expects his neighbours to pay obeisance to him. In short, he becomes a “dada” in his neighbourhood.

China is undergoing such a transformation. It has grown fabulously rich. It holds three trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves which no other country in the world can boast of. Together with the US it accounts for 30 percent of the world’s GDP. The recession in the West, particularly in the US, added to its importance. It has emerged as the world’s largest growth engine and is out to economically humble the mighty US. There is also a talk of saying good-bye to G-8 and replacing it with G-2, i.e. China and the US.

The only country that can come in the way of China’s ambitions to be a unipolar power, militarily, economically and politically, it is India whose political and economic clout in the international arena is on the ascendant. It also suspects that Indo-US strategic relationship is only to counter China. Therefore, it wants to create tension in the border areas so as to divert India’s attention and resources. Not only in Arunachal Pradesh, even in Sikkim it wants to resurrect the ghost that was buried long ago. Dalai Lama is only a red-herring.