Tibetan Youth Congress strongly condemns the four-day official visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to India. The visit, as always, touted as a major vehicle to resolve bi-lateral issues and enforce heightened economic relations between the two countries including setting up of World’s largest Free-Trade Zone, is but another futile effort of a wishful thinking. The experience of the several decades of India’s sincere effort of reconciliation despite the historic betrayal by China and China’s iniquitous diplomacy record the world over, reveals a grim and adverse reality for any amicable outcome.
The visiting delegate, Premier Wen Jiabao is a leader of the Communist regime that does not have legitimacy, mandate and the support of the Chinese population. Its 55years oppressive rule in China spearheaded a genocide that resulted in the death of over 40 million Chinese including over 1.3 million Tibetans in Tibet. The situation continues to be worse, the only difference being their deft skills in camouflaging these tragedies from the world. Nonetheless, China remains the target of the world bodies in UN conferences enlisting as the worst record of human rights. The European Parliament, United States, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other world bodies continue to indict China for its appalling inhuman records. Few days back, a Washington based NGO, Freedom House, released its annual list of the world’s most repressive regimes at the ongoing United Nations Commission on Human Rights at Geneva, Switzerland. The report titled, “The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies 2005,” includes detailed summations of the dire human rights situations in several countries with China as a major perpetrator.
Irrespective of sincere efforts from the Tibetan Govt-in-Exile, for a negotiated settlement with China, China continues to accuse His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a splittist and refuse any improvement in human rights conditions in Tibet. Acknowledging the sad truth, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in this year’s 10th March Statement said, “ China’s image is tarnished by her human rights records, undemocratic actions, the lack of the rule of law and the unequal implementation of autonomy rights regarding minorities, including the Tibetans. All these are a cause for more suspicion and distrust from the outside world.”
The condition in Tibet has not improved despite the outside developments. The high-rise, shopping malls and the big infrastructures are, of course, to facilitate and maintain the occupation of Tibet, haven’t brought any substantial improvements in the lives of the majority of the native Tibetans who are concentrated in the rural areas of Tibet. The development of transport and communication systems and other infrastructures are all geared towards plundering further the native resources and seal the total occupation of Tibet. The benefits and the facilities like so-called government subsidies, if any, go to the Chinese immigrants and not Tibetans. Hu Yaobong, the former Chinese Premier, during his visit to Tibet was so shocked to observe the poor and pathetic condition in Tibet that he uttered,“The conditions of the Tibetans are worse than the conditions before 1959.” Thousands of Tibetans continue to languish in prisons suffering from inhuman torture and prosecutions from the Chinese. The Tibetan people are deprived of all basic rights including religious, cultural, education and traditional rights etc that causes continuous exodus of over 3000 Tibetans each year from Tibet into Nepal and India, vindicating the deplorable conditions for Tibetans in Tibet.
No doubt friendly relation with a giant neighbor is desirable on the face of new global realities. And Tibetans certainly do not propose a more confrontationist line towards China. But we would appreciate and welcome only a genuine improvement in the bi-lateral relation between India and China, which would undoubtedly foster peace and prosperity not just in the two countries but also in Asia and the world at large. Notwithstanding these desires, a nation whose neighborhood had cost India a huge loss in terms of national security, prestige and national interest and whose persistent anti-India campaigns had cost India an immeasurable and irrevocable damage in diplomacy and national treasury and who continue to harbor similar and worst contentment policies against India behind these artificial façade of goodwill gestures, a nation which has forcibly occupied and destroyed several of its weak neighbors and spearheaded a drive of annihilation of its races and the civilizations, and a nation that does not believe in the sacred ideals of democracy, freedom, rights and peace etc, friendship would be the last cause worth supporting and heartening.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s recent statement that, “both sides should view and handle the relation from a strategic high grounds bearing in mind the larger picture, and refuse to let questions left over from history disrupt and impede the development of bilateral relations” and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei’s a news briefing of, “The boundary question will not undermine efforts in other areas of cooperation and the differences over the boundary question are actually quite big and the question is very difficult to settle,” implies their reluctance to resolve the strategic issues that seriously concerns and affects India. The purposes of the visits, therefore, clearly is to project cordial engagement process to promote China’s global credibility and acceptance in a run up to the 2008 Olympic in Beijing etc. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao knows that the world is watching. After all, he told Indian Premier Manmohan Singh in Vientiane: ‘‘The handshake between you and me will have the attention of the entire world.” Thus the visit, besides promoting China’s sole interest, would act a showcase for the world of an “Improving” and “Engaging” China. Chinese Premier’s constant justification to the world that China is ‘not a threat’ to the world will never fail to shroud the bitterness and the grievances harbour by the world against China, which stem from harsh and unpalatable realities.
Despite the pleasant rhetoric, the ground realities of China’s policy and campaign vis-à-vis India depict another story that would prod the patriotism of any right thinking Indian. China has a history of pursuing consistent contentment policies against India for the last 55 years of its neighborhood and is hell-bent on destroying India from rising as an Asian power. Yes, even to this day, not the “history, which should be kept a back burner”. In so far as China’s India policy is concerned, it has tried to prevent India from gaining an upper hand over Pakistan. China has consistently assisted Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs to counterbalance India’s development. India’s preoccupation with Pakistan reduces its over all strength as a strong reckoning nation. A close Sino-Pakistan strategic relationship is also one of the reasons why Indo-Pak peace process has failed to realize any substantive conclusion. China’s use of India’s neighbors to curtail Indian influence has not been restricted to Pakistan. It has contributed to India’s souring relationship with almost all its neighbors, be it in Nepal, Bangladesh or Burma. China, thus, has actively sought to contain India all around its periphery with devious policies of containment. China remains the only major power that refuses nuclear power status to India. It continues to insist on the sanctity of the UN resolution 1172, which calls for India to give up its nuclear weapons program and join Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
China also strongly opposes India’s campaign for a permanent membership to UN Security Council. In a major setback to India, China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guannya, on 5th this month, told reporters that any decision on the UN expansion should be made not by vote in the General Assembly but through consensus. This, many fear will stall or even scuttle the process. UN secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan had earlier call for enlarging Council by September and asked members not to use any excuse for delaying the reform process. All these when India strongly lobbied and campaigned for China’s inclusion in the UN and UNSC in the early 70s’. If recent reports are to be believed, China continues to supply weapons to various insurgent groups fighting in northeastern India. China’s plan to divert Brahmaputra and other rivers of Himalaya would make India’s mammoth River-Linking project redundant, drying-up the low-lying Indian farmlands that would severely affect the lives of several hundred millions of Indians. The mysteries flush-floods that wrecked havoc in the Himalayan ridges of India in August 2000, is suspected to be created by China after an aerial survey of the Pareechu area in Tibet. Their firm refusal of access to the Indian technical team for a survey to ground zero last year and also the rejection of New Delhi’s proposal for controlled release of water via blasting of the artificial lake, to avoid repeat of disaster in the Himalayan region, questions the much-hyped commitment for cooperation of the Chinese Government.
Experts believe that China’s assistance to Burma in constructing and improving port facilities on two islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea is the first step to securing military base privileges in the Indian Ocean by China, having great strategic consequences as India’s traditional geographic advantages in the Indian Ocean are increasingly at risk with deepening Chinese involvement in Burma. Each year Indian Defense Ministry’s annual report records Chinese encroachment into Indian territory exceeding over a thousand times in gross violation of territorial integrity of India. The occupation of over 60,000 sq. kms of Indian Territory and the further claim of over 125,000 sq. km of Indian Territory in the three sectors, in a recent article by Cheng Ruisheng, in the Chinese foreign ministry sponsored journal, International Studies depicts sad realities of the Chinese Govt. Despite favorable reports of improving relations and no-problem attitude within a section of Indian public mostly the business society, China still do not recognize the Indian States of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir. Its illegal exploit of the Indian markets with flooding of it cheap and prison made goods destroys the living of several million small-scale industry owners and the workers.
The five rounds of Special Representatives-level talks on the boundary dispute between India and China, since its establishment in 2003 amidst great fanfare and expectation, do not appear to have had a breakthrough. No wonder, China adopts shifting positions on the border issue and the else, enunciating principles but not explaining them. This deliberate opacity and springing surprises are typical of Chinese negotiating tactics to keep the interlocutor in a perpetual state of uncertainty. With such a negotiating stance of China, it is difficult to see how the bi-lateral issues can be resolved in the near future. It is this strategy that China has consistently and successfully pursued without any apologies. In fact, this strategy has been so successful that today China no longer believes that India can be a serious rival for Asian hegemony. It does not want India as an equal partner, and without equality it is difficult to resolve sensitive territorial issues. The return of backstab for India’s hand shake in 1960’s, compelled Nehru to acknowledge, “ We have been living in fool’s paradise of our own making” To kowtow to Chinese bully and playing into their maneuvering, would be a repeat of the same “Himalayan blunders” and is definitely not the right strategy to further ones national interest.
Foreign secretary Shyam Saran said this week: “India would not like to see a SAARC in which some of its members perceive it as a vehicle to countervail India.” He decried the SAARC nations’ attempts to “seek association with countries outside the region to counterbalance India”. The reference to China could not be clearer. So India should steadfastly pursue its national interests by accepting these realities, rather than wished away. India should make a serious attempt to manage this problem even as it display the confidence to craft a foreign policy that best serves its national security interests without always looking over the shoulders to make sure that China is not displeased.
In his article titled, Bull’s Eye, author Rajinder Puri rightly questions the sincerity of the Chinese Government with queries, “Does our government believe that strategic threats should have no bearing on economic ties? Can China accept Arunachal as a part of India? Can China recognise India’s claims on Kashmir? Can China support India’s entry into ASEAN? Can China stop the supply of missiles to Pakistan? Can China terminate its Defense Pact with Bangladesh and Burma? Can China invite India to the Shanghai Five group to fight terrorism?
The passing exigencies of economic development and unfounded awe of the regime, notwithstanding substantial return in trade boost through the bi-lateral relations, cannot be allowed to override or overwhelm the national interest and security and most importantly the supreme human values of truth, justice, love and freedom, India is so reputed for espousing. India has set high moral grounds at NAM and freedom struggle of Bangladesh and South Africa. It is time to follow suit with the Tibetan cause, lest its too late to SAVE TIBET and to SAVE HIMALAYA which would prove a historic blunder for Indian security. India has a major stake in Tibet’s independence and to assert ones national interest is the supreme right of a free nation. So the occassional palliatives trade boost, scopes for opening trade route, cultural and military exchanges and “bury the hatchet” overtures can hardly outweigh the distrust and betrayal infested half a century Sino-Indo relation.
Tibetan Youth Congress, while strongly condemning the visit of Chinese Premier Wen to India, firmly Believes that Government of India, while dealing with the Chinese delegates, will not take any measure that may go against the historical truth and the aspiration of the six million Tibetans living in and out of Tibet. For a lasting solution of the disputes and to ensure lasting peace and development in Asia, restoration of a FREE TIBET as a historical buffer state is, but inevitable and imminent.
Tibetan Youth Congress reiterates its stand for a complete Independence of Tibet and urge Indian Government and the people for its much prized and impending political support in the realization of the sacred objective and aspiration of the Tibetan people all over the world.
