Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bonhomie with Chinese President Xi Jinping, carefully built over the years, appears to have come to an awkward halt following the recent border incident – Rev. Joseph D’Souza
The recent killing of 20 Indian soldiers by the Chinese military at the Himalayan border should not surprise the world. Though it’s true these are the first casualties at the border in over 45 years, this brazen act of aggression fits within China’s modus operandi. Unfortunately, the world has far too often naively believed the best of China’s intentions.
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, attempted a diplomatic approach to the border dispute with China before the Sino-Indian War broke in 1962. While in retrospect, Nehru’s actions come across as too trusting, the truth is that a diplomatic approach was probably never going to work with China. For China, it has always been Chinese interests first.
Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with his goodwill towards the Chinese leadership, sits in a similar position to his predecessor. His bonhomie with Chinese President Xi Jinping, carefully built over the years, appears to have come to an awkward halt following the recent border incident—pointed out by keen observers who noticed that Modi failed to wish Jinping a happy birthday for the first time in five years. Since the deadly clash at the border, Modi has felt increasing pressure from the public to assert India’s sovereignty.
India should have read the signs and known better, as it shares in the Asian culture where the well-being of family and community is supreme. Unspoken values around communal self-interest drive decision-making at the highest levels. As long as the community interests are upheld, individual rights can be negated, ignored and devalued. This is why China doesn’t balk at trampling individual rights in Hong Kong, or disregarding the sovereignty of its neighbors and throughout the South China sea.
Western nations, deeply influenced by Judeo-Christian principles that place a high value on individual rights, have a hard time understanding China’s behavior. The entire legal framework of constitutional democracies—in this case, India included—revolves around protecting the rights of individuals. Religious liberty, free speech and freedom of assembly, among other rights, are the cornerstones of these nations. But for the Chinese, communist doctrine dictates that laws are made for the greater communal good—even when it means individual rights have to suffer. Thus, China can impose a full lockdown on a city such as Wuhan, virtually cutting it off from the rest of the world, and not face any consequences for it.
While the world may look askance at China’s behavior, writing it off would be a grave mistake. To start off, China’s complete disregard for freedom of speech and information allowed the government to clamp down on any efforts to raise the alarm about the coronavirus, effectively allowing it to spread undetected and become a global pandemic. Now the whole world is suffering because free nations didn’t take China’s human rights abuses seriously enough.
Additionally, China’s rise as a major economic, technological and military power also has allowed it to project its influence abroad, across Asia and as far as Africa and South America. The COVID-19 pandemic has made nations even more vulnerable to Chinese interference, especially in the developing world. Many nations, including developed countries such as the United States, have become dependent on China for their economic and even health care security.
For India, the biggest challenge is the economic foothold China has in India. From nuclear plants to electronics to textiles and food, Chinese presence is noticeable. As India faces grim prospects for its economic recovery, it will become even more difficult to untangle financial ties with China.
As COVID-19 reshapes our world’s order, nations such as the U.S. and India will need to face Chinese influence at home and abroad. Ironically, this may require taking a page out of China’s playbook and putting distinct American/Indian national interests ahead—a strategy President Donald Trump seems to have embraced with his “America First” policy. This doesn’t mean caring only for one’s national needs at the expense of others—which is China’s approach—but giving these needs the proper priority in order to protect the individual rights and freedoms of one’s own citizens. One place the U.S. and India could start is by returning manufacturing and production jobs and processes, especially in the health care industry, back to their home countries.
For too long, the world has been misreading China’s intentions. It’s time for nations to smarten up and begin confronting the threat Chinese aggression represents to our democracies and way of life. – Newsweek, 23 June 2020
› Rev. Joseph D’Souza is a Christian theologian, author and human rights activist. He is an Anglican archbishop and serves as the president of the All India Christian Council.
Filed under: china, india | Tagged: india-china relations, narendra modi, xi jinping |
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Satellite images capture China’s PLA build-up in Ladakh – Rahul Singh – Hindustan Times – June 25, 2020
China has not halted — and instead has ramped up — its military activity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, with a concentration of soldiers, military vehicles, earth-moving machinery, and erection of structures, including near the same point where Indian and Chinese troops clashed on the night of June 15, according to two senior officials and satellite imagery of the area on June 22.
The Indian army has observed a new structure, suspected to be an observation post, come up near Patrol Point (PP) 14, the site of the clash which left 20 personnel of the Indian army and an unconfirmed number of Chinese troops dead, said one of the officials cited above.
There was no official word from the army on either of the developments. India and China agreed to pull back from friction areas on Monday.
New satellite imagery, released by US firm Maxar Technologies, supports the claim that not only is the PLA holding ground in Galwan Valley but has also shored up its military positions in the area. One of the Maxar images too possibly points out a new and bigger observation post near PP-14. An Indian squad, led by the slain Colonel Santosh Babu of the 16 Bihar Regiment, had flattened some structures in this area including an observation post, on June 15.
The satellite images are from June 22 — the day senior Indian and Chinese military commanders reached a “mutual consensus to disengage” from all friction areas during an 11-hour meeting at Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC.
Officials and China watchers, who reviewed the images for Hindustan Times, said the visuals clearly indicated a Chinese buildup and also a new outpost for carrying out surveillance on Indian areas. But they also added that it was important to give the armies time to disengage and pointed to the complexities of satellite imagery.
“A large number of tented camps, military vehicles, heavy trucks and bulldozers are clearly visible on the riverbed. Road construction is also taking place. The Chinese positions are bang on the LAC,” said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General D.S. Hooda (retd), one of the experts who reviewed the satellite imagery for HT. Hooda said the observation post appeared to have come up again near PP-14.
The Chinese buildup in other areas along the LAC including Depsang, Gogra Post-Hot Springs and Pangong Tso, hasn’t thinned either. The PLA’s armoured vehicles and artillery units remain deployed in Chinese areas facing Depsang and Gogra Post-Hot Springs sectors.
The army is keeping a strict vigil along the LAC and is fully prepared to respond to any provocation or adventurism by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said the second officer cited above. Given the observed build-up, the army is also prepared to keep its guards up till disengagement takes place on the ground on a verifiable basis.
But experts also said that it was important to be cautious.
The process of disengagement is likely to be arduous and challenging, and will require moving ahead cautiously in phases, as reported by HT on Wednesday.
“Disengagement can’t happen overnight. While the images are a cause for concern and somewhat reveal China’s intentions to hold ground near LAC in Galwan Valley, the result of the talks between senior commanders will not reflect on the ground in just two days,” Hooda said.
The interpretation of satellite imagery is also tricky and can result in reaching incorrect conclusions, said Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd), a former director general of military operations.
“It’s about how you superimpose the LAC on satellite images. It allows you to reach your conclusions. However, some of the interpretation may be correct,” said Bhatia who heads the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies, a defence ministry think tank.
China has deployed more than 10,000 troops in its “depth areas” across the LAC in eastern Ladakh and the military buildup consists of fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, artillery guns, missile systems and air defence radars. India has matched the neighbour’s military moves.
While disengagement in some friction areas is believed to be a “low-hanging fruit” and can be achieved in a reasonable time-frame, the “real test” would lie in the restoration of status quo ante in the Finger Area in Pangong-Tso, where the PLA has set up permanent bunkers, pillboxes and observation posts, officials said. China watchers believe that the disengagement process is likely to be less complicated in the Gogra Post-Hot Springs and the Galwan Valley sectors, where there are no real issues about the alignment of the LAC, if Beijing abides by the understanding.
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