It is time to do unto China as China does to us

The Big Lens

Barely 11 days after the bitter “physical scuffle” in the Yangtse area of Tawang, Indian and Chinese Corps Commanders met at the Chushul-Molda meeting point on December 20 to sort out differences, bring down tempers, and de-escalate the situation aggravated by the PLA’s misadventure. The Tawang skirmish was the third major clash after Doklam in June 2017 and Galwan in June 2020. It would be naïve to think that this could be the last of the clashes, or that these are “isolated incidents” arising out of “misunderstanding”, or even to dismiss these clashes as “local level aberrations”. The Tawang clashes took place even as the Indian side was seeking a suitable date for the Corps Commander-level meeting.

China plays this game with every neighbour with which it has borders or even trade arrangements. The National Security Advisers of Japan and China met in August, paving the way for a brief meeting between Prime Minister Kishida and President Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in November. Almost immediately after the Kishida-Xi meeting, heavily armed Chinese coastguard vessels sailed into Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

China has been following a similar pattern in dealing with India. According to the Minister of State for Defence, the Chinese army committed 1025 transgressions into Indian territory just between 2016 and 2018. One can see a definite pattern in these transgressions. Many of them either preceded or followed either a high-profile political or diplomatic visit, or some defence exercise by India. There was a 21-day face-off in Depsang in the Daulat Beg Oldie sector as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was visiting New Delhi in 2013. Li explained away the PLA misadventure as a local issue and promised to sort it out once he was back in Beijing. In 2014, the PLA refused to pull out of the Chumar sector in Ladakh even as the Modi-Xi summit was going on in India.

Prime Minister Modi has met Xi Jinping as many as 18 times and visited China five times, the maximum for any Indian PM. His efforts were directed at creating a conducive atmosphere for the two countries to work together as partners. But Beijing’s response was the very opposite of New Delhi’s approach. Among other things, China blocked India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), voted against UN resolutions to proscribe Pakistan-based terrorists, stepped up clandestine nuclear and missile technology assistance to Pakistan.

Besides, while India continues to follow the ‘One China’ policy, Beijing impudently pumps in money into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Indian territory occupied by Pakistan. Stationing nuclear submarines in Colombo port and stepping into India’s legitimate space in its extended neighbourhood through BRI projects are other irritants that fill Beijing’s ‘return gift’ list to India. India’s security, strategic and economic interests are best served only if we get a firm foothold in the North-West, which is our gateway to resource-rich Afghanistan, Xinjiang and Central Asia.

New Delhi had no choice but to keep out of BRI projects (and successfully prevailed upon Bhutan to shun BRI projects), vote in favour of an arbitration dismissing China’s claims in the South China Sea (SCS), sign a contract with Vietnam for oil exploration in SCS. Japan’s Parliament has passed an “economic security” law aimed to protect sensitive technologies and the supply chains for critical goods. The US has similar firewalls against China to protect its interests. What prevents New Delhi from protecting its interests, legally?

The Modi government has allowed the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) to hold public functions in Arunachal Pradesh to celebrate His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday. Though the Dalai Lama has observed that India is his permanent home and that he has no intention of returning to Tibet, the legitimate claim of Tibetans all over the world cannot be sacrificed. At some stage, India and the rest of the democratic world will have to restore the land of Tibet to the children of that land and do justice to those who have been driven out of their homes and hearths.

China deserves to be treated in exactly the same way that it treats us and other countries in the region, and elsewhere, in pursuit of its hegemonic ambitions. India is committed to treading the multilateral path to peace, progress and prosperity, but until Beijing too starts running on the same path, we must do unto China as China does to us.