For the first time Indian troops travelled to a Chinese outpost in the border of Arunachal Pradesh and celebrated China’s national day. Immediately statements were issued like “I can say the winds of change are blowing across the Himalayas and we want to be friends.”, and “China and India will be friends forever.”
It is too early to pop champagne as the communists across the border were never lovers of India and will never be. You don’t have to go too far in history to find evidence of this hostility and it is well known among the countries around the world. When India conducted the nuclear tests in May 1998, the Americans were cordinating a worldwide condemnation of that. In June, there was the meeting of the P-5 Nations (nations who have nuclear weapons), and Madeline Albright was sent to Geneva for it. The statement issued by the P-5 nations was crafted by Bob Einhorn, a state department employee, after talking for hours with the Chinese because of their preference for India-bashing.
Few days later the United Nations Security Council passed the resolution 1172 which condemned the tests and the US Delegation let the Chinese insert some of their harsh wordings and impossible demands. Even Madeline Albright, who was no friend of India tried to get the Chinese to back off, but it was too late. Here is a sample:
“5. Urges India and Pakistan to resume the dialogue between them on all outstanding issues, particularly on all matters pertaining to peace and security, in order to remove the tensions between them, and encourages them to find mutually acceptable solutions that address the root causes of those tensions, including Kashmir;
“7. Calls upon India and Pakistan immediately to stop their nuclear weapon development programmes, to refrain from weaponisation or from the deployment of nuclear weapons, to cease development of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and any further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, to confirm their policies not to export equipment, materials or technology that could contribute to weapons of mass destruction or missiles capable of delivering them and to undertake appropriate commitments in that regard;[UNSC Resolution 1172]
Claude Arpi has an article asking if China is encircling India.
We could continue the list with the supply of arms to Bangladesh; or the Beijing orchestrated saga of Dr A Q Khan in Pakistan, the enhanced Han presence in Central Asia, particularly in Kyrgyzstan where President Akaev has leased 125,000 hectares of the most valuable Kyrgyz land to China ‘with glaciers full of fresh water and with a uniquely designed border outpost.’ Though Kyrgyzstan has not direct borders with India, the encirclement is getting tighter by the day.[Is China encircling India?]
China is building the Gwadar portin Pakistan, Bangladesh is offering its Chittagong port to China and Myanmar is developing facilities on Great Coco Island with Chinese help.
This is one friend we be careful about.
[Reference: Engaging India]
If anything, the Chinese are highly pragmatic people. It is India that always tries to act smart and when shown its place tries to cry foul.
Like in 1961 when China and Russia split and Nehru saw that as a nice opportunity to deploy troops in forward positions. Even after repeated requests from China, India didn’t back off resulting in Chinese action that now we call “unprovoked attack”. Of while we blame Pakistan for writing wrong history of wars, we are happy doing the same.
As for the “encirclement”, China is looking at naval facilities everywhere in the world even far away pacific islands. I am sure even if India offers them facilities they will take it.
As for Chinese never liking India, mate you have to go there and meet people before you write such things. An Indian can get a multiple entry Chinese tourist visa in 3 days while it takes at least a month for a Chinese to get an Indian tourist visa. Apparently, they send the application back to Delhi to get approval from some ministry.
Preetam, The Chinese people are nice so are lot of Pakistani people whom I know. That does not mean the Governments are.
The Indo-China trade which is rapidly expanding cannot be ignored. China recognizes Sikkim as part of India and did this only to increase trading relations. As India becomes a major trading partner of China the relations might improve. US and China went through this phase, They are not the best of friends but relation has improved.
Well from the visa example you see that Chinese government no longer treats Indians as spies, while the Indian government is still suspicious of Chinese tourists. And people like Claude Arpi do more damage talking about some harebrained conspiracy theory still showing the 1961 mentality.
Yes, instead we should concentrate on more trade, maybe introduce Chinese language in couple of universities. Hindi movies are very popular in Western China. Nepali traders do a good business of selling fashion from India. Chinese kids are learning about India and there is potential to sell culture and tourism.