Dipin Damodharan
India and China crossed swords on the opening of the One Belt, One Road or OBOR project which India has boycotted. A key part of the planned project, envisaged by China, runs through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. India has raised strong objections, saying it violates India”s territorial integrity, since PoK is part of India. While boycotting the OBOR, India said, “No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and
territorial integrity”. India’s decision to skip the
summit in China is an assertion of its aggresive posture. India has not taken lightly China’s refusal to allow its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a global cartel that controls nuclear trade, and Beijing’s blocking a request at the UN to sanction Masood Azhar, the Pakistan-based head of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has attacked military bases in India.
Earlier taking the rhetoric several notches higher, China provoked India by renaming six places in Arunachal Pradesh and terming the move as legitimate. “It’s our lawful right to
standardise official names for six places in Arunachal Pradesh,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang asserted. “India will pay dearly if it continues the petty game of playing the Dalai Lama card,” Chinese media warned.
According to reports, the official names of the six places using the Roman alphabet are Wo’gyainling, Mila Ri, Qoidêngarbo Ri, Mainquka, Bümo La and Namkapub Ri.
China is really scared, that’s what these illogical yet provocative measures underline once again. When Dalai Lama visits Arunachal Pradesh, the Chinese Communist leaders have an insecure notion that it’s reflection of their
weakness. China’s action doesn’t make sense, as India has no doubts on the integrity of the nation and the status of Arunachal Pradesh despite the howling of the dragon.
“It actually doesn’t make any sense. These names are more Chinese than the traditional names. From their point of view, they wanted to take an action and that’s why they have done this,” Lobsang Sangay, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said in a recent interview to a newspaper,
following the visit of Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh. Tibet is clear about the position of Arunachal.
Earlier, Zhu Weiqun, a top Communist Party official, said that China may be forced to interfere in the Kashmir issue because of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh. Zhu also lamented that India is losing its dignity as a big power.
What position is Zhu really in to invoke the “dignity” of a “big power” even after the cultural genocide in Tibet and the autocratic rule that China has imposed on its own people, resulting in severe human rights violations. China has to mind that, hitherto India has not interfered in China’s internal matters, showing great dignity in diplomatic relations and not commenting anything on One China policy.
Unlike his predecessor Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been
following a strategic China policy since May 2014. He started with a sensible diplomatic approach that gave every indication that the emerging
superpowers would strengthen their ties, both in terms of trade and security, despite ideological differences in
sensitive issues. However, China, as is its wont, didn’t exactly play ball.
From blocking India’s bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group to vetoing the country’s request to naming Pakistani militant Masood Azhar to a UN Security Council blacklist, the anti-India bent of Communist China has been evident in recent times. Yet, at the same time, Beijing has shown great energy in expanding its business tentacles to
multiple sectors in India, ranging from smart phones to cricket and
e-commerce. Note that more than 30 per cent of India’s smart phone business is now controlled by Chinese brands such as Oppo and Vivo.
Chinese billionaire Jack Maa has big plans to aggressively expand his business in India through online payment platform Paytm and his proposed e-commerce venture to repeat an Alibaba here.
The business relations between the world’s most populous countries, of course Asia’s economic giants, actually make great sense in the financial terms. China is India’s largest trading partner and the trade between the
two countries has been
increasing annually at 15 per cent since 2007. India’s export to China reached around $9 billion in the financial year ending on this March 31, while China exported goods worth $61.7 billion to India. Even though both the countries have a great opportunity to build a century of Asia, it has been a love-hate relationship as the dragon always shows so gung ho about making provocations that disturb India in a very bad manner.
NaMo’s bold policy
China made provocative statements in the past too over the Arunachal issue. What makes the situation different is Narendra Modi’s unwavering stand in dealing with affairs related to the integrity of the nation. India’s different and bold stand on Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal was a surprise for China. That’s why the Chinese official media has been engaged in communicating warning messages to India for weeks over the same issue.
Earlier Indian Governments were specific in directing diplomats and leaders not to air any statements that provoke China. With the status quo changing, China is bristling. Just look at the outraged tone of this article appeared on Global Times, a state-backed tabloid: “The 14th Dalai Lama started his visit to ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ (South Tibet of China) on Tuesday (April 4). The Dalai Lama has been to the disputed region before, but what makes this trip different is that he is received and accompanied by India’s Junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju. When China raised the concern over the visit, Rijiju commented that China shouldn’t intervene in their
internal affairs’.”
“This is a clumsy and rude move.
The Dalai is a highly politicised symbol in China’s diplomacy. For any country, its attitude towards the Dalai Lama almost affects the entire relationship with China. The Dalai Lama has visited Arunachal Pradesh six times earlier and the Tawang Monastery four times. Tawang assumes great importance for the Tibetan spiritual leader, as the sixth Dalai Lama was born there in 1683.
China continues to claim that Tawang, a border town situated 47km south of the McMahon Line that
separates India and Tibet, belongs to them. Thus it believes that the Dalai Lama’s visit challenges their territorial integrity. India, of course, stood its ground. The Dalai Lama was received and accompanied by an Indian Minister belonging to Arunachal Pradesh.
Kiren Rijiju was damn right about China needing to stop meddling in India’s internal matters. Their talk of “dignity” and claims on Arunachal does not make any sense in any context. History is a reminder that India’s policy of appeasing China over the Dalai Lama has not yielded any result. What the Modi
government is doing now is strategically the right approach as the China-Pakistan-Russia axis is gaining momentum. Beijing’s immature statements like “Can India afford the consequence” and “blows with blows” rhetoric could backfire. China has to mind that this is 2017 and not 1962. A sturdy India is emerging, able to withstand strong winds and cold weather.
(The writer is the Founding Editor of Future Kerala business daily)
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