Shibdas Bhattacharjee
A leading defence expert recently predicted that China will attack India by 2012 to divert the attention of its own people from an unprecedented internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems. Among other reasons for this assessment are rising unemployment, flight of capital worth billions of dollars, depletion of its foreign exchange reserves and growing internal dissent that are threatening the hold of Communists in that country.
There may have been some exaggeration in this observation. But it is true that as far as the Chinese policy in the subcontinent is concerned, it is nothing but an unholy mission to destabilize the region. There is little doubt in the fact that India always remains under constant threat from Pakistan-sponsored proxy war, namely terrorism, as well as from the Chinese military designs. This was again echoed during the recent high-level national security meeting convened by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to discuss the situation arising out of intelligence alerts over possible terror threats from Pakistan and growing Chinese military presence in the border area in the northeastern region. The meeting discussed the terror threat emanating from Pakistan-based militant groups and security concerns relating to China — at a time when India prepares to observe its 63rd Independence Day. In fact, the meeting took place in the backdrop of intelligence reports of possible threat via sea on the West Coast. The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard had reported that its ships had stepped up patrolling off the Konkan coast following intelligence inputs from the Goa police that a suspicious ship was sailing towards the State.
China seems to be convinced that India is a serious rival to its ambitions to dominate Southeast Asia. China believes that Pakistan’s hostile attitude towards India will naturally bring Islamabad closer to Beijing. This, in the Chinese view, will help it in projecting its political and military influence further. One of the major factors that prompted China to develop closer relations with Pakistan was the growing estrangement of its relations with India. One expert rightly observes: “China and Pakistan have nothing common in their ideology… except that both saw in India an impediment to their designs which had nothing in common between them.”
In 1964, China openly supported Pakistan’s stand on the Kashmir issue and said that the future of Kashmir should be decided by the people of Kashmir themselves. A year later when a war broke out between India and Pakistan, China fully sided with the latter and even served an ultimatum to India demanding dismantling of a number of military posts. China even threatened to use military force to serve this end. Recently, as per media reports, China has established a military base in Pakistan. And it is a well-established fact now, as both Indian intelligence and the media claim, that the top leadership of militant outfits from the Northeast have got asylum in China.
China’s latest addition to its string of pearls is the Hambantota port in southern Sri Lanka. Beijing, clearly, has aspirations to have a strong naval presence to protect its energy supply routes. This implies it anticipates a conflict in that area. There are some who believe in the myth that China is not competing with India but competing with the rest of the world. The Chinese are well aware of the big players and their hold on energy. For countries like India and China, it is a compulsion to look for energy sources outside their territory. But China, as a rule, does not help a country without expecting a return; it is only when there is a benefit forthcoming to it that China takes the initiative to assist. This is true with respect to Sri Lanka too. China’s contributions to projects in Sri Lanka are also aimed at guarding and reinforcing its interests in that part of the world. If China is to take advantage of the Hambantota harbour, it must extensively intensify its presence there. It may be true that China supplied arms and ammunition to Sri Lanka to fight the war against the LTTE when other countries refused help.
For China, Nepal is also important, as it is integral to Beijing’s peripheral diplomacy. In order to secure its southern periphery, which it considers most vulnerable, China feels the need to monitor clandestine activities in Nepal. Ever since the Maoists became a formidable political force in Nepal in the post-insurgency period, China started to reshape its Nepal policy. Earlier China had branded the Maoists an anti-government force. But with their victory in the election to the Constituent Assembly, the Chinese have beefed up their interests in Nepal and the Chinese leadership is warming up to the Maoist leadership.
Further, Nepal is important for China in order to check the rise of India. In recent years, China is increasingly exploiting anti-Indian feelings prevailing among the Nepalese. This is part of its larger strategy of building friendly relations with India’s immediate neighbours in order to isolate and marginalize India in the region. Moreover, China’s rapid rise has made it imperative to seek more and more resources to fuel its economic growth. Nepal has a huge resource of hydroelectricity and, according to one estimate, it is only next to Brazil in that regard. As for the Maoists, for strategic and economic reasons, they also feel it necessary to cultivate deeper ties with China and reduce their dependence on India. This, therefore, also explains why the Maoists are calling for a renegotiation on the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Friendship.
China is slowly increasing its presence in the Indian subcontinent that is already beset with political and religious unrest. While India’s so-called secular government is happy receiving applause from western countries for criticizing political and religious unrest in neighbouring countries, China is using these events at its best by providing financial, militarily and political assistance.
India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan because New Delhi knows little about Beijing’s combat capabilities. India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China. This has prompted China to go forward with its mission of isolating India from its neighbours like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and of course Pakistan. This evil Chinese design is a threat to the security of the whole region. It is time the leadership in India treated the whole affair with a clear perspective and took effective measures to check the unholy Chinese mission.
(The writer is a freelancer based in Halakura, Dhubri) THE SENTINEL
A leading defence expert recently predicted that China will attack India by 2012 to divert the attention of its own people from an unprecedented internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems. Among other reasons for this assessment are rising unemployment, flight of capital worth billions of dollars, depletion of its foreign exchange reserves and growing internal dissent that are threatening the hold of Communists in that country.
There may have been some exaggeration in this observation. But it is true that as far as the Chinese policy in the subcontinent is concerned, it is nothing but an unholy mission to destabilize the region. There is little doubt in the fact that India always remains under constant threat from Pakistan-sponsored proxy war, namely terrorism, as well as from the Chinese military designs. This was again echoed during the recent high-level national security meeting convened by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to discuss the situation arising out of intelligence alerts over possible terror threats from Pakistan and growing Chinese military presence in the border area in the northeastern region. The meeting discussed the terror threat emanating from Pakistan-based militant groups and security concerns relating to China — at a time when India prepares to observe its 63rd Independence Day. In fact, the meeting took place in the backdrop of intelligence reports of possible threat via sea on the West Coast. The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard had reported that its ships had stepped up patrolling off the Konkan coast following intelligence inputs from the Goa police that a suspicious ship was sailing towards the State.
China seems to be convinced that India is a serious rival to its ambitions to dominate Southeast Asia. China believes that Pakistan’s hostile attitude towards India will naturally bring Islamabad closer to Beijing. This, in the Chinese view, will help it in projecting its political and military influence further. One of the major factors that prompted China to develop closer relations with Pakistan was the growing estrangement of its relations with India. One expert rightly observes: “China and Pakistan have nothing common in their ideology… except that both saw in India an impediment to their designs which had nothing in common between them.”
In 1964, China openly supported Pakistan’s stand on the Kashmir issue and said that the future of Kashmir should be decided by the people of Kashmir themselves. A year later when a war broke out between India and Pakistan, China fully sided with the latter and even served an ultimatum to India demanding dismantling of a number of military posts. China even threatened to use military force to serve this end. Recently, as per media reports, China has established a military base in Pakistan. And it is a well-established fact now, as both Indian intelligence and the media claim, that the top leadership of militant outfits from the Northeast have got asylum in China.
China’s latest addition to its string of pearls is the Hambantota port in southern Sri Lanka. Beijing, clearly, has aspirations to have a strong naval presence to protect its energy supply routes. This implies it anticipates a conflict in that area. There are some who believe in the myth that China is not competing with India but competing with the rest of the world. The Chinese are well aware of the big players and their hold on energy. For countries like India and China, it is a compulsion to look for energy sources outside their territory. But China, as a rule, does not help a country without expecting a return; it is only when there is a benefit forthcoming to it that China takes the initiative to assist. This is true with respect to Sri Lanka too. China’s contributions to projects in Sri Lanka are also aimed at guarding and reinforcing its interests in that part of the world. If China is to take advantage of the Hambantota harbour, it must extensively intensify its presence there. It may be true that China supplied arms and ammunition to Sri Lanka to fight the war against the LTTE when other countries refused help.
For China, Nepal is also important, as it is integral to Beijing’s peripheral diplomacy. In order to secure its southern periphery, which it considers most vulnerable, China feels the need to monitor clandestine activities in Nepal. Ever since the Maoists became a formidable political force in Nepal in the post-insurgency period, China started to reshape its Nepal policy. Earlier China had branded the Maoists an anti-government force. But with their victory in the election to the Constituent Assembly, the Chinese have beefed up their interests in Nepal and the Chinese leadership is warming up to the Maoist leadership.
Further, Nepal is important for China in order to check the rise of India. In recent years, China is increasingly exploiting anti-Indian feelings prevailing among the Nepalese. This is part of its larger strategy of building friendly relations with India’s immediate neighbours in order to isolate and marginalize India in the region. Moreover, China’s rapid rise has made it imperative to seek more and more resources to fuel its economic growth. Nepal has a huge resource of hydroelectricity and, according to one estimate, it is only next to Brazil in that regard. As for the Maoists, for strategic and economic reasons, they also feel it necessary to cultivate deeper ties with China and reduce their dependence on India. This, therefore, also explains why the Maoists are calling for a renegotiation on the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Friendship.
China is slowly increasing its presence in the Indian subcontinent that is already beset with political and religious unrest. While India’s so-called secular government is happy receiving applause from western countries for criticizing political and religious unrest in neighbouring countries, China is using these events at its best by providing financial, militarily and political assistance.
India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan because New Delhi knows little about Beijing’s combat capabilities. India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China. This has prompted China to go forward with its mission of isolating India from its neighbours like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and of course Pakistan. This evil Chinese design is a threat to the security of the whole region. It is time the leadership in India treated the whole affair with a clear perspective and took effective measures to check the unholy Chinese mission.
(The writer is a freelancer based in Halakura, Dhubri) THE SENTINEL
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