Epilogue Press

ADNI/ G BHARAT
Is it possible that China, in its unrelenting march towards the pole position, is crushing everything that comes in the way, including neighbours like India. Our veritable PM had recently remarked that India should be prepared to deal with the new Chinese “assertiveness”, probably referring to the Chinese ‘String of Pearls’ policy, which experts feel, could choke India soon! One would not want to accuse the PM of being alarmist. However, when the normally unruffled ‘Doctor of Economics’ spoke disquietingly of ‘paying close attention to global powers exercising influence in the Indian Ocean Region’, it was assumed that he was genuinely concerned about China’s growing role. India’s closeness to the USA is the reason for China to become much more aggressive towards India Hence today, even the US is wary of the Red Dragon’s growing military capabilities and the opaqueness surrounding its new long-term intentions. For India, though its really a wake up call to act against the Chinese game plan.
Coming to the recent provocations, the continued presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), is a cause of anxiety to New Delhi, forcing it to start strengthening infrastructure along the border. “Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Northern areas is increasing steadily. There are many who are concerned about the fact that if there was to be hostility between US and Pakistan, what will be the complicity of the Chinese. Not only they are in the neighbourhood but the fact is that they are actually present and stationed along the LoC”, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen K T Parnaik had remarked recently, while addressing a seminar in Jammu. As if in confirmation, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the Defence Ministry had been asked for a detailed report on the presence of Chinese troops in PoK and their alleged transgression into Indian territory. She further added that, “there is no point in trying to raise the temperature and to accentuate tension, because that is not the way to deal with such matters”.
Another cause of worry is that China has been developing infrastructure in the border region opposite India in the Tibet & Xinjiang Autonomous Regions. This includes the Qinghai-Tibet railway line, with proposed extension up to Xigaze and Nyingchi, and development of road and airport facilities. Beijing is laying a web of roads that run across areas as distant from each other as Skardu in PoK and Kunming in China near Burma border. China has already constructed roads connecting all its highways to logistic centres and major defence installations, that dot the border with India and the LAC in southeastern J&K.
We are all aware that China has already built a railway line right upto Lhasa in Tibet and plans to extend it into Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. While all this speaks volumes about the Chinese establishment, it is also a scathing comment on the Indian leadership which has allowed China to build roads and railways leading right to our doorstep –a serious threat indeed! But our leaders continue to be obsessed with one troubled western neighbor in an effort to please one trans-Atlantic country, all the while ignoring friends, both existing and potential ones, in the region. Need one say more!
India’s suspicions that China’s Army is now securing its land route to the Arabian sea via PoK have nonetheless grown, given that China has also wrested control of the Gwadar port back from the Singaporean Port Authority. These developments are meshed with the fear of India being choked by a ‘strategic string of pearls’ – a US Defence department term for China’s ambitions for bases in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) with Gwadar in Pakistan, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Chittagong in Bangladesh, and the Sittwe port in Myanmar as the mainstays of the policy.
Coming closer, to Nepal, Chinese interference to influence its policy makers is in continuance of its plan to encircle India and establish its influence in this small but strategically important, Himalayan state, which will ultimately lead to loss of India’s hegemonic presence in South Asia. The problem with India is that it always has maintained distrust of the Nepalese political establishment. This is unfair. Its not easy for the Nepalese policy makers to be anti-India, because, a large number of Nepalese depend on India for their bread and butter. China is also occupying a substantial space in post-LTTE Sri Lanka through economic aid. In Myanmar it is an all China affair, where due to its blessing, the military junta has managed to survive for so many years.
Its not that China is encircling India, rather it is also actively challenging India’s sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh and also Kashmir. It criticized our PM’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh in 2008 ,and actively stopped the grant from the Asian Development Bank, which was required to fund its hydel projects. Now, assertively it is poking its nose in the affairs of J&K also. The denial of visa to Lt. General Jaswal was part of this gameplan.It is also issuing stapled visas to people from J&K and Arunachal Pradesh, because it considers these areas as its part ; so its residents do not require visas to visit China.

China has also deployed nuclear capable missiles facing India near to its eastern border with India, which is not normal. The building of Karakoram highway and rail lines, connecting Pakistan side of Kashmir with China, can be easily used to mobilize the Chinese troops near the Indian borders, adjoining Pakistan.

The growing closeness of India with America is a source of tension to Chinese policy makers. It clearly wants to stop the active American presence in Asia. The recently held US-Vietnam war exercise in its backyard has confirmed its worst fear-that US is not going to leave Asia for China. Vietnam is not a power which matters most to China because it does not have enough military and economic infrastructures to challenge its potential. But India has potential to challenge its global as well as continental hegemonic presence.

For India’s policymakers, it was only after 1962, that a realization dawned that it will be difficult for two divergent systems to co-exist and cooperate, and this has shaped India’s strategic preparedness for any future threat from China. “Increased economic inter dependence between the countries could act as a counter balance to avoid future conflict,” says a strategic affairs expert. As if for proof- India’s trade with China now occupies the second spot, even ahead of the US.
To mend the broken fences, China is thus, trying to win over its estranged neighbour. During his recent India visit, the Chinese Premier had made an oblique pitch for defence cooperation, saying, “China is ready to work with India to intensify exchanges and multi-level consultations between political parties and in the military field, to enhance political and strategic mutual trust.
Finally, it can be said in hindsight, that it’s the fault of our leaders, that China has marched so far ahead of us. Right from Pandit Nehru to the present day leadership, everyone has aimed for occupying global platform, thus ignoring the region. They have forgotten the lesson that every power has to be regional hedgemon first then a global power, which has proved blessing to Chinese, who are occupying the political space in South Asia by outdoing India. By doing this, they are also containing India within its region. It’s time that Indian policy makers awoke from their slumber and became more assertive towards China. Otherwise, they should be ready to lose the tag of regional hedgemon to minions like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Thanks to Dhoni and his team, at least we beat them on the cricket field!—(ADNI)