It must sound curious that China is raising its hackles over a visit by US envoy Richard Verma to Arunachal Pradesh, a province that is an integral part of India. China has warned the US that any “interference” by Washington in the Sino-India border dispute will make it more complicated and disturb the peace at the border.
At the same time, China has been meddling with affairs in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), and pushing a China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Project in a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan but excluding India — an interference of the worst order, posing a greater threat to regional peace and stability.
China has been steadfastly dismissing the objections being raised by India against the Chinese getting involved in a project in a disputed territory.
China is wantonly turning the PoK into its protectorate. Large numbers of its People’s Liberation Army soldiers are scouting around the PoK in the garb of workforce engaged in the economic corridor project.
This poses a major threat to regional as well as India’s security. China, having shown no regard to India’s concerns in this respect, and maintaining dubious associations with Pakistan on multiple fronts, has no locus standi to raise its fingers against a normal diplomatic visit by the US envoy to Arunachal Pradesh.
The visit was at the invitation of the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister, a normal diplomatic procedure and a goodwill gesture. The envoy has come up with a social media posting, extolling the charms of the region.
This is when China seems to have felt things needed to be clarified. India’s obsession with Pakistan has let the China problem go unattended. Or maybe India does not feel confident enough to take on China and make a stand, thereby shying away from any confrontation even after very many provocations.
China could continue to claim Arunachal Pradesh is an “extension of Tibet”, a province of peaceful people that it has annexed through military action over half a century ago, leading to the exile of its spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, too, a couple of years ago, troubled the Chinese, and a protest statement was issued from Beijing, but the matter ended there. India has other serious problems with China as well, such as the Indian territory it occupies in the eastern and western sectors of the northern border, including some 38,000 sq km of territory on the Aksai chin plateau.These need discussion and settlement.
China has been flexing its muscles in this geopolitical region for a while now. This has partly to do with the military might that it has built over the years added with supreme economic strength.
What is also common knowledge is the dubious technical support that China extended to Pakistan to turn it into a nuclear power, which was also a prompting for India to go nuclear. The ultimate result is that the entire region is today a nuclear threat to humanity and a powder keg. China has its problems with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, as also in the South China Sea.
It would seem good neighbourly relations are not an article of faith in China’s foreign policy. The longer India stays mum on such issues, the bolder would China get. With all its weaknesses, the one weapon India still has against its mighty neighbour is cutting off trade links. China would feel the pinch of losing a big market. Alas, if only India had kept its manufacturing sector alive and kicking.
