China is Goliath but is India David?

Once the Indian leadership realised that the Chinese were indeed ‘teaching them a lesson’, Jawaharlal approached the Formosa (now Taiwan) leadership with an offer which he felt they could not refuse. A Indian recognition of Formasa as the ‘real China’ followed by an International campaign to back this recognition to the hilt. Formosa expressed thanks and regretted the ‘inconvenience’ which Indians had been put at by the Red Army. It added, however, that if Indian support was in expectation of Formosa’s support in the border fracas, it was bound to be disappointed. The Nationalist Government, which saw itself as the legitimate ruler of China, considered the core middle kingdom and adjoining provinces of Mongolia, Manchuria, Sinkiang, Formosa and Tibet as Chinese lands and hence there was no question of supporting any alien Nation which undermined, in their views, territorial integrity of the Chinese Nation.

Such is National consensus on territorial integrity among the Han that Taiwan has till date not relinquished Chinese claims over Mongolia. While the People’s Republic of China has recognised Mongolia as an independent Nation, it was under severe duress, when China was but a shadow of its powers. Nothing stops China from renewing its claim and annexing Mongolia once Taiwan reintegrates with the mainland. If single-minded obsession with territorial integrity were the benchmark for National pride, then the Han Chinese are definitely the most proud of all nationalities inhabiting the Earth. Just take the example of Tibet. A vast land of a pacifist couple of million trampled and contained by a bellicose bully which is 1200 million strong. Little chance that Tibetans can regain their autonomy or at least the way they would have wanted. Yet, China ensures that most Nations do not play host or their leaders do not grant any audience to the Dalai Lama. Any transgression of this code is met with demarches and diplomatic sanctions. One may wonder – what harm will the powerful middle kingdom suffer if some leader does meet the Dalai Lama? After all, there is neither any organised resistance movement against the Chinese rule nor does the Lama seek independence. And even if there were such a movement, what chance would it have to succeed against a mighty, determined Nation? Still, rather than taking any chance and ignore any activity which might fan separatist fires, China prefers to err on the side of caution and punishes the transgressors of its territorial integrity in the harshest possible ways.

What is the lesson for India?

For one – India is not China. It never was, and it never will be. For all those self-deluded individuals/organisations which hyphenate India with China or talk of inanities such as Chindia, if nothing else, the recent visit of the Chinese President should be enough to serve as a wake-up call. A salivating gentry was waiting with breathless expectations on what ‘gifts’ would China come bearing – a USD 100 Billion FDI, technology for high-speed trains, support for a permanent seat on UN security council, a border settlement! Is it a relationship of equals or even near-equals when one of them is so clearly the seeker?

Two – Indians do not value territorial integrity inspite of having suffered invasion after invasion in the last two millennium. We have had but one Chanakya who understood the need for securing our frontiers. After that, it was only the invaders – the Khiljis, the Mughals and later the British, who realised that a Nation vulnerable at its edges cannot ever be in peace. The British in particular, whatever their end objectives be, ensured that India was at its widest and most secure from foreign invasions in a long long time. But, after independence, the naïve Indian leadership, in constant affirmation of their ‘statesman’ image, goaded by the ‘peace-at-any-cost’ brigade, has somehow confused ceding of land with diplomacy. In each of its encounters with its neighbours, from Sri Lanka to Maldives, from Myanmar to Bangladesh, from China to Bhutan and of course Pakistan, we have ceded land, either voluntarily or under force. Today, we are a witness to China shrinking our frontiers through the very Chinese method of ‘creeping acquisition’ – slowly claim land pasture by pasture, prevent Indian activity in what was hitherto undisputed Indian land, deepen ingress into Indian territories so that more and more of the frontiers become ‘disputed’ and consequently, a non-go area for the India army.

In the last few decades, each time a Chinese dignitary visits, we have had border transgressions, each more serious than the other. But, so thick is the skin of Indian establishment that an ex-diplomat, who runs an influential blog on foreign policy, blamed the Indians for ‘provoking’ the Chinese. More seriously, a sort of consensus is developing that any border settlement with China should be maintenance of status quo, i.e., India retaining Arunachal Pradesh and ceding Askai Chin and the trans-Karakoram area to China. Such thoughts are fraught with immense dangers for our Nation on account of multiple reasons. One - unlike India, China takes a long term view of its territories and any piece of land, which was ever under the Chinese, is seen as being part of their Nation forever. Hence, an abdication of Chinese claims over Arunachal does in no way prevent future Chinese from staking claim. This becomes even more likely when one considers the stance of Taiwan over Mongolia. Two, Indian claim over Askai Chin is historically more valid and legally more tenable than compared to its claim on Arunachal, or at least large parts of it. The lands of Arunachal were ceded by Tibet to British under the Shimla agreement. This settlement was never accepted by the Chinese for they refused to recognise Tibet’s right to negotiate as a sovereign Nation. On the same lines, India has always recognised China’s sovereignty over  Tibet with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in his characteristic search of validation, gratuitously recognised Tibet Autonomous Region as an integral part of China. Now, if Tibet was never a sovereign Nation, how can its act of ceding lands to India be considered valid ? On the other hand, the lands of Askai Chin were overrun by Dogra armies and administered by kings of Jammu & Kashmir and hence are more validly ours. Third, what will India gain other than tenuous peace at the cost of sacrifice of land? Is this lasting sacrifice for at best, a temporary reprieve, worth it?

The callousness of us Indians can be gauged from the mere fact that an official memorandum between Government of Gujarat and China contained a map which showed Askai Chin and Arunachal as disputed. Nothing highlights our selfishness better than the constant refrain of industrialists that increasing trade will force China to mellow down. The reality is that this trade is skewed heavily in favour of China and its imbalance has only magnified in the last few years. If anyone has to feel the pinch of an interruption in trade, it is the Chinese as they will lose a vast market for this finished goods. Yet, all the economic logic has not prevented China from strengthening its claim to what it feels are its core National interests. Indians on the contrary, ever so happy to save money, are aghast at the mere prospect of a stoppage of cheap Chinese goods from flooding our markets.

Given our vacuousness, the stance taken by Narendra Modi, while not substantial, is a welcome improvement from the vapid conduct of the previous NDA and UPA governments. Even as our home minister parroted the shameful UPA line that Chinese transgressions are but a result of different perceptions of border (wonder why India does not transgress, if this be the case), the Government allowed Tibetan refugees to demonstrate against the visiting dignitary and made pointed references to the border dispute. Yet, the same Government succumbed to Chinese pressure and withdrew from Chumar. In a case of callous oversight, India yet again recognised Chinese sovereignty over Tibet in the MoU signed on the new route to Kailash Manasarovar.

While the very nature of our people ensures that India can never be China, we need to be wary of this forceful Nation which has defeated us in both the armed encounters we have had with them (eighth and twentieth centuries). At the same time, Indians need to appreciate those qualities which have ensured that except for small intervals, China has stood like a colossus in the community of Nations. Developing a sense of territorial integrity and National pride would be a good beginning.