This surely calls for a serious review of the Modi government’s China policy. If the Modi government decides to maintain its self respecting position vis-a-vis China as seriously as it has done with Pakistan, then it must identify the spots where China hurts the most.
New Delhi: China was back to playing its old game of bullying India by taking the Kashmir issue to the United Nations Security Council. It was a direct and blatant diplomatic attack on India, which has been successfully thwarting Pakistan’s efforts to internationalise the Kashmir issue for decades.
For India, China’s aggressive anti-India conduct was not expected especially in the wake of the ongoing “Wuhan Spirit”, sold to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by President Xi Jinping. The Wuhan Spirit calls for “non interference in each other’s internal matters” and showing sensitivity to both countries’ “central concerns”. It’s all the more shocking for India because it has been always accommodative of China in the UN. Even in the most vulnerable days of People’s Republic of China, India abstained from voting against it when the UN General Assembly twice, in 1959 and 1961, passed resolutions condemning it for its inhuman massacre of thousands of Tibetans in 1959. (India voted in favour of this resolution only in 1965 after China attacked India in 1962 by using the same colonised Tibet as its launch pad.)
In later years, whenever the United States or its allies presented a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) calling for the condemning of China for its horrible acts on the human rights front, India always voted in favour of China. Interestingly, in the UN, this is the only issue where India has voted on the same side of Pakistan over a dozen times.
The “closed door” and “informal consultation” on Kashmir at the UNSC has neither had any legal impact on India’s position that J&K is its internal matter, nor were this meeting’s statements put on any kind of UN records. But the damage was done. After decades of prolonged and successful diplomatic efforts by New Delhi to keep Kashmir insulated from international interference, both Pakistan and China were able to bring the issue to the public glare, even if for just one evening.
But even after failing to force the UNSC President (a monthly rotational chair, occupied by Poland this time) into issuing a formal statement, China briefed the world media in a far more aggressive manner than even the Pakistani representative did after the meeting. Maleeha Lodhi, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN did not go beyond claiming to the media that finally “the voice of the people of Kashmir was heard in the United Nations”. But the Chinese Permanent Representative jumped in to claim that the UNSC members had “expressed serious concerns about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir…and are worried about the human rights situation”. Also that “it was the general will of the members that the parties concerned should refrain from taking any unilateral action which might further aggravate the tension”.
Earlier too, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi had tried to complicate India’s position and internationalise the Kashmir issue by saying publicly in Beijing that “Kashmir issue is a dispute left from colonial history. It should be properly and peacefully resolved on the basis of the UN Charter, relevant UNSC resolutions and bilateral agreements.”
China’s aggressive anti-India stance came even after sending Prime Minister Modi sent External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to Beijing to explain India’s position on Article 370. This surely calls for a serious review of the Modi government’s China policy. With China taking such a frontline position in hitting India’s interests in Kashmir vis-a-vis Pakistan directly, the present government in India will be too naive, rather foolish, to repeat what previous Indian governments have been doing at the UN.
If the Modi government decides to maintain its self respecting position vis-a-vis China as seriously as it has done with Pakistan, then it must identify the spots where it hurts China most. Interestingly, one does not need to master rocket science to identify these spots in the underbelly of today’s China.
AKSAI CHIN & SHAKSGAM
There are issues on which India has every legal, political and moral right to take on China to protect its own sovereign rights and national self respect. Aksai Chin and Shaksgam, two territories that belong to sovereign India but are now under China’s forced occupation should be the first and most obvious issues to be taken up by New Delhi. Aksai Chin, covering a huge area of 37,244 sq km, which connected India with East Turkistan (Xinjiang after China occupied it in 1949) was quietly annexed by China in the 1950s. It quietly built a 179 km long road in the Karakoram Range to connect Tibet with Xinjiang while Jawaharlal Nehru’s government sat in a state of inertia generated by his blind love for and faith in the Communist China.
Shaksgam, another strategically located valley covering an area of around 2,700 sq km was gifted by Pakistan to China in 1963 soon after the India-China war of 1962. China’s Karakoram Highway passes through this region. It is time for India to reiterate her territorial claims on these regions. Both these regions belong to India’s Ladakh and China is now challenging India’s decision to convert it into a Union Territory.
BALAKOT ON CPEC?
Any strategic expert who has even an elementary understanding of this region will tell you that both China and Pakistan are most vulnerable in this region which is a part of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. China has invested over $25 billion on the road connecting Xinjiang to Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea. This road passes through POK. In the event of serious hostilities with India, both Pakistan and China stand to lose this lifeline in a single Balakot kind of Indian action. Hundreds of bridges on this route are nothing more than sitting ducks.
CHINA’S WEAK UNDERBELLY
On the political and diplomatic front, China today is far more vulnerable in its twin colonies of Tibet and Xinjiang than it was ever since it occupied Xinjiang in 1949 and Tibet in 1951. Its forcible occupation of South Mongolia is no armchair situation either for Beijing. In fact the boiling situation in Hong Kong over China’s plans to integrate it into its draconian police system can prove to be China’s waterloo if countries like India extend their moral support to the citizens of this island colony city. Similarly, India’s decision to rehabilitate its diplomatic relations with Taiwan to the normal level will leave Chinese leaders fuming and frustrated.
BHARAT RATNA FOR DALAI LAMA
Another doable step by the Modi government, which is bound to derail China’s future expansionist plans relates to Tibet. At a time when Beijing is desperately waiting to install its puppet baby after the present Dalai Lama, it will be the fittest step to honour the Dalai Lama with India’s highest civilian prize, Bharat Ratna. This “non-violent” master stroke will not only give a boost to the international Tibet movement but will also restore India’s international image in matters related to handling Dalai Lama and Tibet.
CIVIL WAR IN CHINA?
And finally, supporting the emerging cry of “Boycott Made in China” can work as a final kick to an already fragile dictatorial Chinese communist system. Even a 15%-20% fall in China’s exports will lead to a surge in job losses and end up in a civil war that all the guns in the command of Beijing’s communist regime will be unable to withstand.
Vijay Kranti is a senior journalist and Chairman, Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement.