How China is Trying to Capture India from within

In his monumental compendium Art of War , the great Chinese strategist Sun-Tzu’s basic mantra of war is to win it without fighting on the war front. Describing the supremacy of the art of Attack By Stratagem i.e. The Art of Deception’ in the chapter-3 of this outstanding document, he says, “…To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting…….(Pt-2) ….Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field (Pt-6).”

In India today, almost every politician and security analyst is feverishly engaged in a debate over nitty-gritty details of the Chinese army’s attempt to occupy an Indian Army post in the Yangtse sub-sector of Arunachal Pradesh. But no one seems to have the desire, leave aside the wisdom, to take note of the quiet but lethal war of Sun-Tzu, which is going on deep inside the Indian territory and also across the nation’s mindscape since Mao established his Communist rule over China in 1949.

 

Even as a blatant and overwhelmingly visible issue as the Maoist insurgency (‘Naxalism’ in its previous avatar), the pro-China Communists of India have prevailed over the entire range of Central Governments (current Modi Government of BJP included) since 1960s to brand it merely as ‘Left Wing Extremism’ (LWE) and not ‘terrorism’. So effective has been the influence of China-oriented lobbies in India that whenever any high ranking over-ground Maoist leader is caught openly professing revolution against a democratically elected Government or even ‘demolishing’ the democratic system, many among the best and well-meaning lawyers of the Indian Supreme Court would vie with each other to plead for their ‘respectful’ release of this ‘honorable intellectual’. So deep have the roots of China-sponsored Communist parties and leaders grown in some of the most respected universities of India that groups of leftist students can think of a public celebration of the mass murder of 37 security personnel by the Maoist terrorists in Odisha (29 June 2008). Similarly, loud cheering and applause by the JNU students for the pro-China Leftist student organisations and Islamist separatists of Kashmir when they openly danced on the tune of Bharat Tere Tukde Honge – Insha Allah, Insha Allah (Allah willing, India will be broken into pieces) in February 2016, was a clear indication of how far the Sun Tzu’s doctrine has inflicted India.

Besides presenting the Communist agenda as a ‘genuine’ desire of the ‘common man,’ the Communist doctrine has always been focused on gobbling up or overwhelming the popular public movements in their target countries through infiltration and hitchhiking the popular bandwagon. The same tactics were clearly visible during the anti-CAA demonstrations and barricading of roads by a host of Islamic groups in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh and the year-long ‘Kissan Andolan’, when petty communist farmer unions high-jacked the agenda and leadership of the movement to hold the capital to ransom for over a year. Looking from the angle of Sun Tzu’s doctrine, these two movements presented a clear full dress rehearsal of how similar crowds can be managed to throttle the movement of the Indian Army and other security forces across India in the event of a war with China or Pakistan. India’s security experts and top brass of intelligence agencies now realise that the sudden call by the Communist and Islamist student leader Sharjeel Imam to the Indian Muslim community during the Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA movement was neither a joke nor a stray wishful thought. Sharjeel’s call to organise a march of five lakh Muslims towards Assam to occupy the thin ‘Chicken Neck’ corridor in Siliguri, which connects India’s eight North-Eastern States to the rest of India, was a pre-mature spilling of a joint plot of the Jehadi and communist groups of India to cut off the entire NE region from rest of India.

Chinese embassy in New Delhi has won the distinction of developing a significant impact over quite a few universities, especially some new private universities. One of the most visible cases has been that of the Ashoka University

 

Having realised how deeply the Chinese Sun Tzu doctrine has been able to percolate into and invade the Indian polity’s mindscape, it is necessary to walk back into history to identify some of the fountainheads of this anti-India poison. Although many people find it convenient to blame Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, for all the problems with China. But it will be a total injustice to hold him responsible exclusively for the mess India has landed into vis-à-vis China. But it was surely the pro-China ecosystem generated by Pt Nehru’s one-sided love affair with China which provided a fertile ground for the sprouting of pro-China wisdom among the Indian bureaucracy, academia and public discourse. One of the very few persons one can think of who sowed the seeds was the much-touted ‘China Expert’ Ms. Mira Sinha-Bhattacharjea. She joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1955 at a young age of 25 and was posted in Beijing.

“China has encroached upon our land. From Ladakh and Uttarakhand, they’ve reached Arunachal. We have the right to know government’s preparation to tackle China’s conspiracy” —Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha

 

Those were the days when Pt Nehru’s sponsored fever of Hindi Cheeni Bhai Bhai (Indians and the Chinese are brothers) was at its peak. It was just a year after Nehru had signed on the dotted lines of the so-called ‘Panchsheel Agreement’ with China in 1954 and had formally certified the ownership of forcibly colonised Tibet to China as the ‘autonomous region of China’. Not only this, the agreement which had not a single mention of the principles of ‘Panchsheel’ in any of the operative clauses except in its over-jargoned introduction, Pt Nehru surrendered every single existing privilege of India in the free Tibet (1913-1951). These privileges included India’s consulate in Lhasa and two business posts in Tibet; India’s ownership of the only telegraph line in Tibet; and India’s right to maintain an armed garrison in Tibet.

“We are all with the Army and the soldiers but please allow the Opposition to be a part of this discussion after the (Government) statement. The statement can come, we will listen. No one wants to disrupt. The statement will come; we will listen to the Defence Minister; and, then we wish to participate. That is all” — Derek O’Brien, MP, TMC

No wonder this pro-China environment in the Indian Foreign Ministry and also the PM Office in New Delhi were the right chemical medium for the Chinese government to synthesise its India policy and also to groom the young Indian officer. It is quite interesting to note that only four years after serving in the MEA, the energetic Mira resigned and decided to devote herself to teach Chinese studies in India. Over the years, she started the Chinese studies departments in Delhi University and later in JNU. Deeply influenced by her own China experience and encouraged by the pro-active adoration for China of her Prime Minister, many observers of Mira’s feats in the later years found her more a champion and admirer of the Chinese interests in India-China relations than those of India.

Because of her coveted position in these universities and her personal equations with the high authorities, Mira had almost a free hand in deciding the direction of research and opinion of Indian diplomats, researchers and media towards China. In later years, she established the first independent China study institute of India in the form of the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) in the capital, which further became the nursery of new generations of ‘China experts’ in India. Having been a keen observer of India-China relations over the past half a century and the impact of Mira’s work on Chinese studies in India, I could never miss the all-pervasive timidness of a sizeable section of India’s ‘China experts’ and ‘China Hands’ in the MEA on issues and policies related to Tibet. I termed it as the ‘Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea Syndrome’, which has inflicted India’s China policy in a big way for a long time. Having the privilege of participating in some TV discussions and seminars in her company, I could not miss the great awe people around her held and, of course, the awe about China’s great ‘successes’ in the economic and military fields she herself held. The much respected ICS too, has been too visible in its pro-China awe and tilt to miss. There have been murmurs among a section of China watchers who felt that the choice of topics of research and the researchers were biased in favour of China instead of India. This fear about ICS’ bias was verified in February 2017 when the MEA decided to withdraw its annual bulk grants of Rs. 1 crore and informed it that future grants would be given on the basis of each project’s merit.

“The Modi government has kept the people and the Parliament in the dark. Why is it scared of the truth about China coming out? What is Modi’s interest in hiding the facts about Chinese aggression?” —Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM chief

Besides having visible influence over some old China study institutions and think tanks of India, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi has won the distinction of developing a significant impact over quite a few universities, especially some new private universities. One of the most visible cases has been that of the Ashoka University in the National Capital Region, which has suddenly emerged as yet another nursery of ‘China Experts’. There have been allegations about the university and its flamboyant founder, who has been the focus of special attention due to his involvement in organizing exchange visits of Indian and Chinese scholars. An overwhelming similarity between the activities of the ‘China Study Centres’ launched by this university and the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party has been noticed by many academics, including a research organization of Indian lawyers who published a report about China’s fishy activities of the Chinese embassy in Delhi and some Chinese interest groups in India. There have been reports about the serious influence of Chinese interest groups on Chinese studies programs at some Indian universities.

Many China watchers in India have come to realize that while Pakistan has been using its terrorist groups to destabilize India, China is in overdrive to use diplomacy, academic research, business houses and influential media personalities and media groups of India to promote its own narrative–a reminder of the Sun Tzu’s strategy. Besides using its money power to buy full-page advertorials in prominent Indian newspapers like the Hindustan Times, Indian Express and The Hindu etc. The Chinese Communist Party is using its Xinhua news agency to sign pacts with media organisations like the UNI news agency and the Press Club of India. It is not out of the way to mention that while the Chinese government heavily restricts the appointment and movement of Indian journalists in China, it enjoys all freedoms available to foreign journalists in India. So much so that the Xinhua news agency has on its staff a Kashmiri journalist in Srinagar who enjoys accreditation from the Kashmir administration. It stands in sharp contrast to the Chinese Government’s total ban on travel of Indian journalists to Tibet, Xinjiang and S Mongolia.

 

Sun Tzu’s influence in India has now percolated deep into the Bollywood industry, which happens to be the most significant influencer of the public mind in India. After handing over the charge of regulating films and media of China to the CCP in 2018, the Chinese Government is seriously focused on making inroads into Bollywood by signing co-production arrangements between major Indian producers and Chinese companies. China demonstrated its success in breaking into the Bollywood club in 2019 when it invited many Indian stars, including Shahrukh Khan and Kabir Khan, to the Beijing International Film Festival (BIFF) 2019. Besides showcasing these Indian stars during the event, the BIFF concluded with a special screening of SRK’s film Zero. Similarly, China allowed Aamir Khan to screen the dubbed Chinese version of his film Dangal in many cities in China. Many business observers of India felt that the ‘extraordinary’ success of Dangal on the Chinese box-office was a manipulated effort of the Chinese Government to dangle carrot before other Indian producers to encourage them to avoid anti-China themes and present China in a favourable colour in their films. China’s money and political influence over Bollywood was starkly demonstrated when the producer of the film Rock Star was forced to reedit the crowd scene of its popular song in which a ‘Free Tibet’ banner was visible. On the Chinese embassy’s demand, the produced covered the word ‘Tibet’ from the banner before releasing it in Indian theatres.

One of the very few persons one can think of who sowed the seeds was the much-touted ‘China Expert’ Ms. Mira Sinha-Bhattacharjea. She joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1955 at a young age of 25 and was posted in Beijing

 

Another sign of China winning strong influence over India’s entertainment industry is the heavy investments of CCP-related Chinese companies in some major Indian platforms. For example, Xiaomi invested $ 25 million (Rs. 200 crore) in Hungama, which is a leading aggregator, developer and distributor of films in India. All of these activities amount to direct and indirect influence over factors, which affect the Indian mindscape deeply and have the potential of achieving for China in India what Sun Tzu termed as ‘capturing’ India’s cities from within without
laying siege to them.