Enter The Dragon

Hu Jintao, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP) recently came visiting the US. For the reasons of protocol he donned a different hat and was feted by the mainstream American media as the President of the Peoples' Republic of China. Hu Jintao stood beside Obama at the White House and used the occasion to convey a not so subtle message that the leaders of the world’s two largest economies are becoming equals. Hu Jintao was obviously seeking parity for China with the US while questioning the usefulness of dollar as an international currency. He admonished Obama about interfering in the internal affairs of China especially about the issue of human rights in Tibet, the Dalai Lama and the pledge for non-use of force in attempts to annex Taiwan. Since Hu Jintao became Communist Party General Secretary in 2002, repression in Tibet has intensified steadily as already witnessed immediately before and after the Beijing Olympics. Politely but very firmly Hu acknowledged human right problems in China but then dismissed any need for corrective measures by proclaiming that China is still a developing country with different problems that take precedence over human rights. In public Obama meekly hoped that in 30 years from now China would be less repressive on human rights front. Whether Obama meant that for mainland China proper with its pre-1949 boundaries or did he include the so-called Tibetan autonomous region as well? What would be the status of Tibet in 30 years time-period?

Even prior to Hu's “General Secretarial” visit to Washington, DC, two cold warriors from the US had already laid a welcome mat for the Chinese dictator. Both of them were very instrumental in embracing China in the seventies in order to contain the Soviet union. Both these ancient worthies Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brezezhinski very glibly advocated ignoring Chinese threats and impudence and rooted for recreating a kind of G2. Hu Jintao got a 21 guns salute, a private dinner with the Obamas in the White House and a state dinner with all the pomp and pageantry that is usually involved in a summit meeting. Of course when your banker comes to your home with his calling card reminding you about your trillion dollars debt, all you can do is mouth some benign platitudes and offer a nice dinner in the hope that the banker will not auction your house. Obama announced $45 billion worth of American export deals to China, supposedly creating 235,000 jobs in the US. Even old deals were recycled as new by the Salesman-in-chief in order to generate a good photo-op and claim the credit for bolstering the anemic US economy. Many US business houses competed with each other to bestow favours on Chinese state owned companies. G.E. announced a partnership deal with a state-owned Chinese company. GE is willing to share its most sophisticated airplane electronics, including some of the same technology used in Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner.

The warm welcome fit only for a king that Hu Jintao received from the Obama administration would definitely bolster Chinese audacity in Asia. It may encourage China to harass India further by using its proxy Pakistan. It will also increase Chinese appetite for more territory from all its neighbors. Already before setting foot on the US soil, China got one thousand square kilometers from Tajikistan in the Pamir Mountains region. The dispute between China and Tajikistan dated back to the 19th Century, when Tajikistan was part of Czarist Russia. China had initially claimed more than 11,000 square miles (28,000 square kilometers) from Tajikistan. On January 12th 2011, the Parliament of Tajikistan passed a resolution and agreed to give away one thousand square kilometers of its territory to China in a bid to put an end to the land dispute. This has implications for India regarding the Arunachal Pradesh which China chooses to characterize as the so-called Southern Tibet and also in Ladakh sector. Chinese claims on Spratly Islands and Paracel islands in South East Asia will become shriller. China will get into a game of chicken with Japan on the Senkaku islands chain dispute.

Because of the voyages and conquests of the Chinese eunuch admiral Ho in the 14th century, whole of the South East Asia is supposedly a vassal or a tributary state. An expansionist China is already planning to economically infiltrate the whole of Siberia. Just like it did on its new western frontiers during the period between 1949 and 1956 when Tibet and Eastern Turkistan (Xingjian) were militarily subjugated and annexed gradually. One hopes that the Russians are watching these expansionist Chinese moves very carefully.

India needs to be very clear in her mind while dealing with an assertive China on territorial disputes. Apparently, China has no intention of solving these border disputes with India soon. Chinese analysts have been talking about balkanizing India into more than twenty states. China hopes to be stronger and stronger, and not just economically but also militarily when it can impose its dictates on India, just like it did in Tajikistan. China hopes to overtake the US as the sole superpower in the world. It will continue to manufacture more stapled visa issues not just pertaining to the states of J & K and Arunachal Pradesh. Giving an inch of territory to China is an invitation to further irrational demands for Indian Territory by China. India needs to pursue its national interests vigourously and acquire comprehensive national power to meet the challenges in the years ahead.

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Published date : 27 January 2011