The Great Leap Backward?
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
China on reassured the world it will never seek hegemony or “expansion” but vowed to modernise its armed forces, the world’s largest, without engaging in arms race or posing a military threat to others.While,US President George Bush and the country's Congress united in issuing a powerful appeal to China to engage the Dalai Lama directly in talks to resolve the five-decades-old Tibetan issue while conferring on him the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honour on October 17.The vehemence and unequivocal nature of the appeal was surprising coming as it did in the face of some very strong protests from China which went to the extent of asking Washington to abandon the honor altogether.With the formal ceremony in the historic Capitol Rotunda, the Dalai Lama became the 146th recipient of the medal.
“China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development,” Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said in his opening address at the 17th National Congress of the ruling party.
“This is a strategic choice the Chinese government and people have made in light of the development trend of the times and their own fundamental interests,” Hu, who is seeking a second consecutive term as the CPC boss, told 2,213 party delegates.
Hu, also Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the top defence organ of the country, said China follows a policy that is “defensive” in nature. “China does not engage in arms race or pose a military threat to any other country. We oppose all forms of hegemonism and power politics and will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion,” Hu assured the international community amid the “China threat” concerns raised by the unprecedented modernisation of the 2.3 million-strong People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Stressing China cannot develop in isolation from the rest of the world, nor can the world enjoy prosperity and stability without China, Hu said: “China will never seek benefits for itself at the expense of other countries or shift its troubles onto others.”
The Chinese legislature approved in March the national defence budget for 2007 fiscal year, which reached $44.94 billion, up 17.8 per cent from 2006.
Meanwhile,The flourishing Indo-Tibet barter trade has hit a roadblock, not political but inclement weather coupled with heavy snowfall that has halved down the business.
The five-month-long trade, which ended in October, came down sharply to Rs 54 lakh as against last year's figure of Rs one crore, officials in Uttarakhand said.
They attributed the reason for the slump to bad weather which included rain during August and September and heavy snowfall during the last fortnight of October.
The trade, which began on June 1, got good response initially but the volumes of business remained stagnant despite efforts from both sides to boost business.
Officials at Gunji informed the Pithoragarh district authorities that five-foot-thick snow enveloped along the Kalapani-Lipulekh route which leads to the Taklakot Mart in Tibet in October which affected business.
Earlier, heavy rainfall during monsoon triggered landslides which in turn also had slowed down trade.
"Only 297 trade passes were issued this year as against the quota of 550. Due to bad weather, traders did not participate in the business," said an official.
Indian traders are also seeking lifting of the ban on Chinese raw silk and livestock which are in great demand in India. Following the growing demand of Chinese silk, the government imposed a ban to protect the interests of local silk traders in the country.
Maintaining that resolution of Tibetan issue was vital for betterment of Indo-China ties, the Dalai Lama on Saturday favoured "genuine friendship" between the two Asian giants, rekindling the 'Hindi-Chini bhai bhai' spirit.While, India was looking to the deliberations of the just-concluded 17th party congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with great interest, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.Holding bilateral talks just before his departure to New Delhi, Mukherjee thanked his Chinese host and said that all the agenda items in the trilateral meeting, which included Russia on Wednesday, had been successfully concluded.But addressing a function from which all Union Ministers kept away, the Tibetan spiritual leader attacked the Chinese government for continuing the policy of "suppression" in Tibet and warned that use of "gun" and "force" would only spew "more resentment and anger".
"Resolution of issue of Tibet is relevant for India-China relationship. I really wish to see a genuine friendship between India and China," he said after being felicitated by some NGOs and religious leaders here.
"I want to see the rekindling of the spirit of Hindi-Chini bhai bhai," said the Dalai Lama who just returned from a visit to the US.
Making it clear that he did not aspire to hold any "political position" if a local Tibetan government is formed, he quipped that he was already in the "semi-retirement" phase and would contribute to the Tibetan cause as a "senior adviser".
Union Ministers kept away from the function following an advisory by the Cabinet Secretariat, apparently not to ruffle feathers in China which had voiced strong objection to the US honouring the Tibetan leader recently.
Lashing out at China for following the "policy of suppression" in Tibet, the Dalai Lama said "genuine harmony should come from the heart and not from the gun".
India-China: Imperfect harmony
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14544109
Claude Arpi is an expert on the history of Tibet, China and the subcontinent. He was born in Angoulême, France. After graduating from Bordeaux University in 1974, he decided to live in India and settled in the South where he is still staying with his Indian wife and young daughter. He is the author of numerous English and French books including ‘The Fate of Tibet,’ ‘La Politique Française de Nehru: 1947-1954,’ ‘Born in Sin: the Panchsheel Agreement’ and ‘India and Her Neighbourhood.’ He writes regularly on Tibet, China, India and Indo-French relations. In the present article, he says India needs to act as a friend of China.
China's top leaders stand to the national anthem during the opening ceremony of the 17th Communist Party Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing October 15. (AP photo)
Democracy is not the agenda of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. President Hu Jintao only proposed a small dose of “intra-party democracy” when he presented his “Political Report” during the opening conclave on October 15. However, Hu did promote the construction a ‘harmonious society,’ making sure that the different political blocs are in a position to get their share of the current economic boom. But while the President mouthed the usual platitudes, such as “boosting people’s participation in politics in an orderly and incremental fashion,” the political situation in China remains far from transparent.
2008 is supposed to be a special year. It is a leap year and for the first time in modern history, Beijing will organise the Olympic Games. In ancient Greece, this was a time for ‘truce’, during which athletes, along with artists and pilgrims, often with their entire families, travelled to attend or participate in the Olympic Games before returning in total safety to their respective countries. Will the leadership in Beijing decide to follow the old tradition? Will this truce apply inside China and more importantly for us, to the relations between India and China? Many observers may ask: “But where is the need of truce? The relations have never been so cordial between the giant Asian nations!”
This is only partially true. Let us look first at some historic instances.
Are the Sino-Indian relations on the right track?
In India, the feeling that Sino-Indian relations are on the right track has always been present in some Delhi circles. During the last days of 1949, India wanted to be the first non-communist nation to recognise Mao’s regime.
Chinese paramilitary police officers march past a banner reading ‘China Communist Party’ on display at Tiananmen Square during the 17th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct 17. (AP photo)
One would have thought that New Delhi would have sought some clarifications from Mao’s government, particularly on the status of Tibet which had tremendous strategic implications for India, before recognising the Communist regime. But Delhi went ahead and officially recognised the People’s Republic on December 31, 1949.
The next morning a broadcast of the New China News Agency proclaimed: "The tasks for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for 1950 are to liberate Taiwan, Hainan and Tibet... Tibet is an integral part of China. Tibet has fallen under the influence of the imperialist."
This communiqué targeted not only the Western powers, but India too.
Already, the most important feature of Indian diplomacy was ‘not to rock the boat’ as an American diplomat put it. In other words, not to disturb ‘cordial relations’ with China. A year later, after Tibet was invaded. Delhi could only express ‘regrets.’
The signing of the Panchsheel Agreement between India and China marked the tail-end of this policy. While the British expedition of 1904 had officially marked Tibet as a separate entity, the agreement put an end to its existence as a distinct nation. The Land of Snows became ‘Tibet’s Region of China’. The circle was closed with incalculable consequences for India and the entire Himalayan belt. Ironically, the Tibetans themselves were not informed of the negotiations.
By the same author: Burma's freedom cry
The preamble of the Agreement contains the Five Principles which heralded the beginning of the Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai policy. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) took control of the Roof of the World. This translated into building a network of roads and airstrips heading towards the Indian frontiers in NEFA, (now Arunachal) Uttar Pradesh and Ladakh. India had not benefited from her ‘generosity.’
Moreover, the idealistic Five Principles were never followed either in letter or in spirit by China. Chinese intrusions into Indian territory began in June 1954, hardly 3 months after the treaty was signed. This obsession that ‘China is our friend’ continued till the border war of October 1962.
Optimists might argue that the past is the past, but unfortunately history has a tendency to repeat itself. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Beijing in June 2003 was said to have opened new vistas in the bilateral relations between the two countries. The main cause for rejoicing was the appointment two negotiators for the border issue between India and China.
Unfortunately once again, while the Prime Minister was on his way back to India, reports came in that Chinese soldiers trespassed on Indian soil in Arunachal Pradesh. Even if all this can be considered as ‘old stuff’, the opening of the railway line to Lhasa is strategically and militarily worrisome for India’s security.
Probably prompted by the forthcoming Olympics Games and the image that Beijing tries to project, Hu Jintao coined a new motto: “The Peaceful Rise of China”. During a speech in Hainan province in 2004, President Hu Jintao used the word ‘peace’ 11 times. He said that the ‘peaceful rise’ was a way to answer “the people who may be truly worried for genuine reasons and those who may just want to advocate ‘China threat’ for other motives.” In other words, development is modern China’s only concern.
However, policies are not always in harmony with slogans in the Middle Kingdom and one of the most ominous developments for India has been the commissioning of a railway line from Golmund in Eastern Tibet to Lhasa.
In February 2001, China's Vice Minister of Railways Sun Yongfu presented the project as a way to "promote the economic development of the Tibet Autonomous Region and to strengthen national defense." What does strengthening of national defenses mean?
One of these worrisome changes is the demography on the high plateau. For millennia, India had very close cultural and religious relations with the Tibetan people. It will be entirely different when a large Han majority from the mainland settles in Tibet.
The railway makes it also easier to move, at short notice, nuclear weapons in case of a conflict. What was impossible to move by road due to the difficult terrain will not pose any serious problem by train. Recently, an article published in the Defense News in Taipei discussed the New Chinese Missiles at Delingha (near Golmund). The author quoted the Nuclear Information Project (NIP) of the Federation of American Scientists as noting that: “Satellite photos displayed by Google Earth appear to indicate that launch pads for older Dong Feng-4 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are undergoing upgrades to fit them for new 10-meter DF-21 medium-range missiles.”
Worse, with the new railway track, the DF-21 missiles can be shifted to the Lhasa region in a very short time, making the Indian cities 1100 km closer from the launching pads
Another example of mismatch
Another example of mismatch between the saccharine mottos and reality is the destruction of a weather satellite by a medium-range ballistic missile on January 1. While the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman claimed that “the test was not targeted against any country and does not pose a threat to any country,” it is clear that this experiment was part of an ‘asymmetric warfare’ scheme. The test obviously greatly worried the military circles in the US as well as Russia and Japan.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (middle) with former Indian
president APJ Abdul Kalam (L) and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh (R) during his visit to India in
November 2006.
Should it not worry Delhi? No, because “the Chinese are now our friends.” Morerecently, it has been reported that some hackers working for China's military have attacked the German chancellery and the Pentagon’s computer networks. According to Federal Computer Week, a technology trade publication, officers at the Norfolk Naval Network Warfare Command said that attacks from China far exceeded those from elsewhere in "volume, proficiency and sophistication". Again ‘asymmetric’ tests!
Before his visit to China in May, Gen J.J. Singh, the Army Chief agreed that both sides could hold joint exercises in the Chengdu military region (Sichuan province) which oversees most of the Indo-Tibet border. At that time, Singh had declared that “both armies are interested in expanding military-to-military ties”. Unfortunately, the joint exercises are now indefinitely postponed.
According to The New York Times, a Chinese military spokesman said the countries were unable to agree on a location for the drills. It is strange because the Sichuan province had already been selected. Is it linked with some disturbances labelled as a ‘major political incident’ in Eastern Tibet (Kandze Prefecture of Sichuan province)?
Another prickly issue is the constant infiltrations in Arunachal Pradesh and even, sometimes, in Uttar Pradesh sector. In May 2007, Tawang was again in the news when Arunachal MP Kiren Rijiju alleged that the Chinese had intruded up to 20 km in this sector. Though it was denied by the Home Minister Shivraj Patil, the doubt remained.
The Army played the ‘friendship’ card: addressing mediapersons, Brigadier Sanjay Kulkarni said no such move by the Chinese had been reported since 1986 and that "perfect harmony exists between the two nations". Well, ‘perfect harmony’ is not a proof that incursions are not possible. To interpret China’s actions (and reactions) with an Indian mindset has led to disasters in the past.
Last, something which may appear small, but which demonstrates the way the Chinese function: someone from Arunachal recently told me that when you make an ISD call from Tawang, the recipient abroad can see the Lhasa region code and not India’s code (91) followed by the STD code of the Tawang district on his Caller ID screen. Is the Government of India even aware of this blatant violation of India’s sovereignty?
Today, it is irrelevant if China is a friend or a foe, India needs to act as friend, though being prepared for the worst. History cannot and should not be forgotten
The Great Leap Backward?
Elizabeth C. Economy
From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2007
Summary: China's environmental woes are mounting, and the country is fast becoming one of the leading polluters in the world. The situation continues to deteriorate because even when Beijing sets ambitious targets to protect the environment, local officials generally ignore them, preferring to concentrate on further advancing economic growth. Really improving the environment in China will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.
Elizabeth C. Economy is C. V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenges to China's Future.
China's environmental problems are mounting. Water pollution and water scarcity are burdening the economy, rising levels of air pollution are endangering the health of millions of Chinese, and much of the country's land is rapidly turning into desert. China has become a world leader in air and water pollution and land degradation and a top contributor to some of the world's most vexing global environmental problems, such as the illegal timber trade, marine pollution, and climate change. As China's pollution woes increase, so, too, do the risks to its economy, public health, social stability, and international reputation. As Pan Yue, a vice minister of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), warned in 2005, "The [economic] miracle will end soon because the environment can no longer keep pace."
With the 2008 Olympics around the corner, China's leaders have ratcheted up their rhetoric, setting ambitious environmental targets, announcing greater levels of environmental investment, and exhorting business leaders and local officials to clean up their backyards. The rest of the world seems to accept that Beijing has charted a new course: as China declares itself open for environmentally friendly business, officials in the United States, the European Union, and Japan are asking not whether to invest but how much.
Unfortunately, much of this enthusiasm stems from the widespread but misguided belief that what Beijing says goes. The central government sets the country's agenda, but it does not control all aspects of its implementation. In fact, local officials rarely heed Beijing's environmental mandates, preferring to concentrate their energies and resources on further advancing economic growth. The truth is that turning the environmental situation in China around will require something far more difficult than setting targets and spending money; it will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.
For one thing, China's leaders need to make it easy for local officials and factory owners to do the right thing when it comes to the environment by giving them the right incentives. At the same time, they must loosen the political restrictions they have placed on the courts, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the media in order to enable these groups to become independent enforcers of environmental protection. The international community, for its part, must focus more on assisting reform and less on transferring cutting-edge technologies and developing demonstration projects. Doing so will mean diving into the trenches to work with local Chinese officials, factory owners, and environmental NGOs; enlisting international NGOs to help with education and enforcement policies; and persuading multinational corporations (MNCs) to use their economic leverage to ensure that their Chinese partners adopt the best environmental practices.
Without such a clear-eyed understanding not only of what China wants but also of what it needs, China will continue to have one of the world's worst environmental records, and the Chinese people and the rest of the world will pay the price.
SINS OF EMISSION
China's rapid development, often touted as an economic miracle, has become an environmental disaster. Record growth necessarily requires the gargantuan consumption of resources, but in China energy use has been especially unclean and inefficient, with dire consequences for the country's air, land, and water.
The coal that has powered China's economic growth, for example, is also choking its people. Coal provides about 70 percent of China's energy needs: the country consumed some 2.4 billion tons in 2006 -- more than the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined. In 2000, China anticipated doubling its coal consumption by 2020; it is now expected to have done so by the end of this year. Consumption in China is huge partly because it is inefficient: as one Chinese official told Der Spiegel in early 2006, "To produce goods worth $10,000 we need seven times the resources used by Japan, almost six times the resources used by the U.S. and -- a particular source of embarrassment -- almost three times the resources used by India."
For the rest of the article go to http://www.foreigna ffairs.org/ 20070901faessay8 6503-p0/elizabet h-c-economy/ the-great- leap-backward. html
A Himalayan Blunder: How our maps ceded land to China
Sourav Roy |
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14538779
The Special Representatives of India and China completed their 11th round of talks on the border September 26 without much to show for it.
The border has plagued bilateral relations ever since Independence, with China refusing to accept the McMahon Line drawn by the British as an ‘Imperial legacy.’ The two nations even fought a brief war over it in 1962.
But India’s position that the McMahon line should be the border may come back to haunt it if Chinese actually agree. Because large tracts of land in Arunachal Pradesh which are patrolled by Indian troops today are officially shown as Chinese territory in maps officially certified by the Survey of India.
What is even more appalling, almost two decades after this major error was pointed out to the government by a decorated war hero, nothing has been done.
After intense debates over whether we should run this article, we finally decided to do so for one simple reason: The truth must be told.
A Himalayan Blunder by Indian cartographers has led to a piquant situation along the disputed India-China border, with Indian troops patrolling a region which the official Survey of India maps show as Chinese territory.
Way back in December 1988, this glaring mistake was brought to the notice of the then Minister of External Affairs, P.V.Narasimha Rao, by the 1971 Bangladesh war hero and the former Chief of Staff and Army Commander, Eastern Command, Lt General J F R Jacob.
In his reply to General Jacob dated December 24, 1988, Rao, who later became the Prime Minister of India, accepted "the contradictions that India faced" and admitted that publishing maps with a border that the Chinese might use to their advantage could indeed be a grave issue. "We hope to resolve these in a proper way when we can discuss constructively with the Chinese," he wrote.
However, "the changing of maps at a time when substantive discussions with the Chinese take place also needs to be considered," wrote Rao. Twenty years later, the incorrect maps remain unchanged.
India and China have been locked in a bitter border dispute since India's Independence, which even led to a border war in 1962. Though the two sides agreed in the early 80s to put the issue on the backburner while focusing on other interests, attempts to find common ground on the border have yielded little.
'This was unfortunate'
Despite all the hoopla over improving Sino-Indian relations, despite the dozen or more rounds of talks between the Joint Working Groups on the border issue and the Special Representatives appointed by the two sides to resolve the border issue, not a single square kilometre of the approximately 2,400 km border which separates India from its giant northern neighbour has been jointly delineated, or marked along the ground.
India has always maintained that the Sino-Indian border should be along the McMahon line. This line — named after the chief British negotiator Sir Henry McMahon — was negotiated between the British, who then ruled India, the Tibetans and the Chinese following the Simla conference of 1913-1914 on the status of Tibet.
China, however, later refused to ratify the agreement, on the grounds that Tibet, being a part of China, could not make treaties. Rejecting the McMahon Line as ‘an imperial legacy’, it laid claims to huge tracts of Indian territory, describing it as part of 'greater Tibet' and hence a part of China.
When McMahon's cartographers plotted the line as a boundary between India and China, they did so on the basis of the then available survey data. However, the cruel, inhospitable terrain ensured that they could not survey several large tracts accurately. Some of the surveys of the hilly border terrain were in fact conducted by the local tribals, and marked as such on the map.
It is well documented in the Government as well as the Indian army records that McMahon's intention was to place this line as a border along the highest crest-lines. The annotation on his original map clearly stated that it was a 'rough compilation.'
The Survey of India maps published by the British, which were in use till the 1950's, were generally blow-ups of this McMahon map, though some additional topographic data was added by the British in the relatively accessible areas enclosed by the line. Fortunately for India, McMahon had named most of the important mountain passes through which the line actually passed.
In the discussions on the border recorded in the White Papers of 1961, the Chinese maintained that their boundary was as per the Survey of India map of 1917.
"Our negotiators, in rightfully maintaining that the international borders was as per the McMahon Line map and the Survey of India maps, contended that area had been properly surveyed, and if I remember correctly, stated that this was based on 'accurate survey and triangulations," said General Jacob in his letter to Rao.
"This was unfortunate."
'The map of India will discernibly change'
In fact, it was a classical goof up which threatens to put India in an awkward position if China ever agrees to negotiate on the basis of the McMahon Line, something it did with Myanmar years ago.
"You are aware of the situation obtaining in respect to the trijunction with Bhutan," continued General Jacob. (Editor's note: India had unilaterally shifted the trijunction on the McMahon Line some three miles north.)
"There are a few other minor differences in the alignment along the remaining parts of the McMahon line except in the extreme northeast. The Chinese, so far I gather, have not yet disputed the alignment of what they call 'the so-called McMahon Line' except perhaps in the Walong area," the letter to Rao said.
"We could however be put in a difficult situation in the delimitation of the areas contiguous to the Hadigra Dakhru (pass) and Glei Dakhru (we used to regularly patrol these passes and presumably continue to do so)."
In the Survey of India maps that were of the scale of 1 inch to 4 miles, in use till the 1960s, notations on the mapped area of this sector clearly mentioned that the watershed in this region was unknown, and that it was based on a "tribal survey".
"In 1969, when the first 1:50,000 Survey of India maps rolled off the presses, I noticed that the discrepancies in this area between the earlier surveys and the present ones were sizable. The earlier maps of this area near the border bore little or no relation to terrain," General Jacob's letter said.
"The main range of the watershed in the general area of the two dakhrus (passes) was omitted and the dakhrus and the alignment of the border for some considerable distance incorrectly placed. Some of the rivers shown were non-existent."
Yet the same anomalous maps were successfully reprinted by various agencies including the Survey of India, which approved the border of this particular map on June 24, 1982.
Also read: China for sincerity in resolving border row
In a map attached to his letter, General Jacob marked out these areas, and noted that if the map had been plotted correctly, "the outline of the map of India will discernibly change and will be apparent even on a very small scale map."
"McMahon's cartographers drew a line through the two passes in question and the adjacent areas where they thought the range was. They named these passes, as such we have every right to publish the correct alignment of the border in this sector, particularly as McMahon's map as annotated was a 'rough compilation'," wrote Jacob.
The question now is, "Is it still expedient to continue to publish maps with a border that the Chinese could, if they so wish, use to their advantage as and when India gets down to the business of delimitation and subsequent demarcation?"
When approached, a senior Survey of India official declined comment.
Myanmar 'expels' top UN official
Myanmar's military government has said it will not renew the mandate of the top United Nations official in the country.
Charles Petrie was summoned to the new capital Naypyidaw for a meeting with military officials, Aye Win, a UN information officer in Yangon, said.
"I can confirm that the government has expressed its intention not to continue his assignment," Aye Win said on Friday.
The decision to effectively expel Petrie came ahead of a visit to the country by Ibrahim Gambari, the UN envoy, over last month's violent crackdown on protesters.
Petrie, who arrived in Myanmar in 2003, had made public remarks that were critical of Myanmar's government and will probably have to leave the country after the decision.
A statement by the UN last month criticised a "deteriorating humanitarian situation" in the country.
US criticism
The US has denounced the decision to end Petrie's mandate.
"The United States is outraged that the Burmese junta would expel the UN human rights representative," Gordon Johndroe, US national security council spokesman, said, using Myanmar's former name of Burma.
"This kind of treatment is completely unacceptable and is especially inappropriate [before Gambari’s visit]," he said.
Internet access in Myanmar was also cut on Friday in an apparent attempt to limit the flow of information before Gambari's arrival to the country.
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