The National Security Council (NSC) has warned against issuing licenses to the Great Wall Airlines of China to operate cargo facilities at and between Chennai and Mumbai airports. An NSC secretariat report cited security concerns and said that this would give the Chinese the access to monitor our nuclear installations, which are close to the airports or lie on the route. The China Great Wall Industry Corporation, which holds majority stake in the airlines, is involved in the development of commercial space technology. The Corporation works in close liaison with the People'sLiberation Army of China. The NSC perceives threat from the company in terms of intelligence collection exposing our personnel to poaching.
The National Security Council had earlier warned against handing over Indian ports to the Chinese companies as part of promoting FDI. The NSC in a discussion paper said that the FDI issue involved security concerns of the nation and the Chinese companies could not be given unlimited access to our infrastructure facilities.
Then came the report of visa to 1800 Chinese workers in the Reliance oil project. It is not clear why the Reliance needed to recruit and bring Chinese into India, and that too in such huge numbers. Reliance has been poaching into the government oil PSUs for recruits and taking away senior geologists and engineers from ONGC and other companies, especially related to oil exploration and pipe laying technology. Neither Reliance nor the UPA government that gave the nod for the visas explained the need for Chinese workers. Is it that there is a dearth of qualified people in India? Adding suspicion to the whole episode was the intervention of the Communist Party of India (Marxists). They are behaving like the retail agents of the Chinese government. The visa issue got sorted out when Sitaram Yechury met the politically overactive Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.
Since the UPA came to power, with the support of the Communist parties in India, China has been trying to make inroads into our country'scommerce defence and infrastructure projects. China'srenewed vigour in pursuing India is sending shivers down the spine of people who witnessed the trampling of the Hindi-Chini bhai bhai sentiments by the Red Army in 1962. The continued occupation of China in Indian territory and the growing proximity between China and Pakistan in the spirit of ?enemy'senemy is my friend are worrying defence experts.?
There are reasons to be worried. The National Security Council has issued a timely warning against involving unverified foreign firms in India'scrucial projects, including the SEZs. There have been series of reports both published and unpublished about the Chinese interests in India. What is of primary concern, especially in the context of the CPM involvement in Nepal and the new-found Maoist role there is the open, vocal and pan-Indian political support being extended by the left parties to China.
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