Wednesday, December 8, 2010

CHINA: WELCOME INDIAN ASSERTIVENESS

B.RAMAN

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, needs to be complimented for standing firm to China and refusing to be bullied by it into not attending the Oslo function on December 10,2010, in honour of Liu Xiaobao, a Chinese political dissident in jail in China, who has been awarded the Nobel Peace prize this year. Since the Chinese have successfully prevented anybody even remotely connected with him from going to Oslo to receive the prize on his behalf, the function is likely to be purely symbolic without the prize being handed over to anybody unless the Norwegian Nobel Committee decides to hand it over to a Chinese human rights activist living abroad.

2.The Chinese bullying campaign to intimidate other countries into boycotting the symbolic function at Oslo by using Beijing's economic clout has considerably succeeded at least in Asia as would be evident from the reports that only India, Japan, South Korea and Thailand have rejected the Chinese pressure not to attend the function One is surprised by Vietnam, which one would have expected to stand firm to China, succumbing to the Chinese pressure.

3. This is not the first time that our Prime Minister has stood firm to China. He had earlier ignored the Chinese unhappiness over the visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. He has also allowed the Jamia Millia to award a doctorate to His Holiness though the approval was delayed till his recent meeting with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Hanoi was over.

4. It will be interesting to watch how Beijing reacts to the obvious and well-deserved snub from New Delhi on the issue of the Oslo function. At the worst, Prime Minister Wen might cancel his forthcoming visit to India for three days from December 15 before proceeding to Pakistan. It is hoped good sense will prevail and Beijing will not take this extreme step, but, if it does, so be it. We cannot go on pampering and appeasing China, particularly when it is so blatantly insensitive to India's major concerns relating to issues such as the Chinese refusal to issue normal visas to Indian citizens living in the Indian territory of Jammu & Kashmir and when it has been taking actions to undermine our claims of sovereignty over Gilgit-Baltistan and other areas of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

5. Strict reciprocity should be the rule in our relations with China. If it ignores our sensitivities in matters of vital interest to us, there is no reason why we should be unnecessarily responsive to its concerns in relation to Tibet. The time has come for us to reconsider the existing restrictions on political interactions with His Holiness. While our Foreign Secretaries have been periodically calling on the Dalai Lama, there are practically no interactions between him and our political leaders----from the Prime Minister downwards. The time has come to give up this policy and hold periodic interactions with His Holiness not only in his capacity as a religious leader on religious issues, but also in his capacity as a political leader on the political situation in Tibet.

6. It is also time to associate him in some capacity with the project for the revival of the Nalanda Univerity. We need not be unduly worried about the sensitivities of Singapore and other countries helping in the project. If they withdraw, it does not matter. ( 9-12-10)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

5 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wiki said...

Excellent decision by India!

Although, I read in a newspaper that only because China publically put pressure on India, we decided to attend the ceremony because "the Government did not want to seem to be bending in public". So if the Chinese would have threatened in private, India would also have boycotted?? Hope our HUGE guilty conscience does not come in our way, lest we go groveling back to China asking forgiveness for this 'momentary lapse of sanity'. Lets remain steadfast and proud of our decision.

murali said...

regarding Vietnam - some analysis from BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11879731

Esoteric said...

India should now starting talking to Taiwan to recognise their sovereignty.

Not sure why we dont do so.Its like China not recognising Bangladesh after its creation from United Pakistan.

Of the one's boycotting the ceremony..Afghanistan is a surprise, Srilanka only confirms suspicions.

Finally, hope the Govt doesnt 'give-in' later on when China ups the ante; as they might. Even though its unlikely but higher temperatures vis-a-vis China is a good overall strategy to ensure US plays the role we want it to.

Voyage of Thoughts said...

Was wondering about the strategic importance of Nalanda University. I came across this old article which throws some candle light

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/opinion/09garten.html?_r=1

Sir, could you please elaborate on the strategic importance and 'soft power' projection based in this?

Thanks!