Round The World

New Delhi, 17 November 2023

India-China Relations

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

By Dr DK Giri

(Secretary General, Assn for Democratic Socialism) 

Like many other countries, mainly the world powers and the aspiring ones, India’s foreign policy is presumably undergoing intense engagement in current international issues. Two surprising and shocking developments – the war in Ukraine over a year and the fighting in Gaza Strip over a month – have caused realignment in international politics. Foreign policy in India does not draw enormous public attention which it should as the Prime Minister wants to play the world role and wishes India to become ‘Viswa Guru’(world leader). Public response currently is even less as the whole political leadership is engaged in elections in five States. 

Interestingly, what is missing in the current debates on the wars between Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine is the attitude and alliances of China which have undoubtedly a strong impact on India. On the Ukrainian war, India has sought to be neutral whereas China tacitly supports Russia. On the war on Gaza Strip, India has clearly sided with Israel on the issue of terrorism and with Palestine on humanism as the civilians continues to die and suffer. In the conflicts in the Middle East including the ongoing war, Iran is the villain of the piece. Israel has been openly calling out Tehran for instigating jihadist attacks on Israel for quite some time, not just on 7 October. Tehran has been patronising and instigating Hezbollah based in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Houthis in Yemen, ISIS in Iraq and Syria and so on. 

Around these ongoing wars, the changing configuration of world powers is being increasingly evident. Iran is snuggling up into the axis of China and Russia. Iran has just signed a 25-year Cooperation Programme or Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China since 2021. This agreement puts a spoke in the wheels of India-Iran relations, which was already largely derailed by sanctions imposed on Tehran by the United States. The much-awaited Chahbahar Port which was linking India to Central Asia through Iran is on logjam. Iran will not easily reconcile to India being a part of I2U2 – the partnership involving India, Israel, UAE and the United States. 

Obviously, it will be naïve to assume that Beijing is indifferent to the serious developments in the Middle East if not instigating it through Iran. It is an open secret that Iran was perturbed by the prospect of Saudi Arabia and Egypt having formal relations with Israel like other Middle-Eastern countries have done. The 7 October terrorist attack was launched to derail the process of formalisation of Saudi Arabia and Israel bilateralism. 

Where does the China angle in the current international politics place India? New Delhi cannot be indifferent to Chinese moves on the chess board of international politics as New Delhi is the prime target of Beijing. Indian foreign policy makers cannot ignore China’s ‘art of war’ against India. Let us remember that ‘The Art of War’is China’s hallowed strategic manual which steers China’s relationship with India, written by Sun Tzu, a military General of the Wu nation of mainland China about 2500 years ago. ‘The Art of War’ is a manual of how to deceive and defeat an enemy in a planned way. Beijing has been applying the strategies from this book in its bilateral relationship with India. 

Seven decades ago, Chou En-lai deceived Prime Minister Nehru before launching a full-scale war against India in 1962 on the border question. Beijing manipulated Nehru while annexing Tibet in 1950, got the better of Nehru’s insipid approach during the India-China negotiations on Tibet between 1951-54, he declined the US offer to India to become a Permanent Member of the UNSC and instead gave it away to China, and his disastrous presentation at the India-China Summit in 1960, New Delhi on the border question. 

From that Summit, Chou En-lai inferred that Nehru did not know where exactly India’s border in the Himalaya’s lay. He went back to Beijing and sent his army to incrementally occupy Indian Territory quietly all along the 3,225 kms long Himalayan border which culminated in India-China war in 1962. By the time China panicked hearing on 20 November 1962 that the British and US air forces were going to pound China in support of India, China declared a unilateral ceasefire on 21 November 1962. Alas! By that time China had already annexed about 45000 sq kms of Indian Territory, all along the border from Ladakh to Assam, including the strategically important Aksai Chin, in Ladakh, which itself was about 38000 sq kms. That was the time when the Indian Army was totally unprepared for a war with China. 

Fast forward, if Chou En-lai took ten years to ‘know’ Nehru, the current Chinese President Xi Jinping took only five years to “know” Prime Minister Modi in the sense of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Recall that Xi Jinping chose to call at Modi’s private home in Gujarat, met his aged mother and went to the extent of swinging with Modi at latter’s home. Later on, they were strolling in a lighter and relaxed mood in Mahabalipuram and Wuhan; I call it ‘swing and stroll’ diplomacy. But sadly, while President Xi was dining and swinging with Modi, Chinese troops were occupying at tri-junction point in Doklam. Furthermore, Xi Jinping was fostering anti-India feeling among India’s neighbours --Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives. China helped Pakistan to build up nuclear weapons against India. 

It appears that the Chinese leadership has deceived Modi again as is evident from their aggressive incursion into Indian Territory in the Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake and around, in violation of the agreement to preserve tranquillity in the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Himalayan border. Modi made it worse for India by asserting that, “No one has intruded into Indian soil” which also implied legitimation of all 45000 sq kms of Indian Territory which is under the Chinese occupation. 

It appears that the record of bilateralism between India and China since 1954 India has accommodated Chinese incursions. This amounted to India’s appeasement policy towards China. For instance, accepting China’s annexation of Tibet without making any reference to the McMohan Line border between India and Tibet; and in 1962, China occupied 45000 sq kms of Indian Territory. China has been coercing India to forget the McMohan Line and accept the LAC to legitimise 45000 sq kms of Indian Territory. 

In the international context, as China acquires more power in economic, military and territorial terms, Beijing’s belligerence would pose a menace to world’s peace as Hitler’s Germany had posed in Europe in 1940s. The added factor is that a dictatorial President Xi Jinping has now installed himself as a life-long President of China. History tells us that whenever China became strong, it practiced unabashed expansionism. India will certainly bear the brunt of China’s aggressive postures. 

To prevent such a disastrous situation developing in Asia and the world on account of China’s belligerence, it is imperative for the international community to pay timely attention to China and curb its expansionist aspirations. New Delhi has to do all it can to make the international community take cognizance of China’s belligerence and expansionism which constitute a threat to world peace and security. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)