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My Word
Arunachal Pradesh
Time China Grows Up
by Rajinder Puri
Beijing objected to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh because it claimed
that Indian state to be part of China. The Indian government
responded with the following statement: “We express our
disappointment and concern over the statement made by the
Official Spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
since this does not help the process of ongoing negotiations
between the two Governments on the Boundary Question.”
What a pathetic response! The Chinese statement was not only
impertinent, it was stupid. Beijing objected to the PM’s visit
to Arunachal Pradesh but did not utter a peep about recent
elections in that state in which 72 percent electorate cast
their votes. Perhaps Beijing does not like to be reminded of
democratic elections that are conspicuously absent in China.
The truth is that China
is becoming a bore and a nuisance. Its economic and military
prowess has given its government a bloated idea about its
importance. Beijing ’s attitude with its warlord mentality is
frozen in the nineteenth century. But the world has changed.
People are interdependent and informed. Big powers can bomb
nations and humiliate them. They cannot subjugate them.
The 21st century man can fulfill Ernest Hemingway’s 20th century
comment: “Man can be destroyed, not defeated.”
America is more powerful than China. Iraq and Afghanistan are
teaching America this painful lesson. One hopes that the abject
approach of the UPA government does not lead China to make a
dangerous miscalculation. The UPA government is not permanent.
It in no way reflects the temper of the Indian people.
Beijing should wake up to some hard truths.
In 1954 Pandit Nehru signed a Treaty of Friendship with China by
which India recognized Tibet to be part of China . By signing
that treaty Nehru thought that the boundary question with China
was settled. It was a piece of thoughtless cynicism to buy peace
with his “bhai” in Beijing at the cost of the Tibetan
people. Successive Indian governments have behaved like
prisoners of this treaty.
However Article VI of the 1954 Treaty states:
“The present agreement shall come into
effect upon ratification by both Governments and shall remain in
force for eight years. Extension of the present agreement may be
negotiated by the two parties if either party requests for it
six months prior to the expiry of the agreement and the request
is agreed to by the other party.”
The Treaty was neither renegotiated nor
extended. It lapsed. India is under
no legal constraint to consider Tibet to be part of China.
The uncivilized approach by the Beijing government in dealing
with Tibet has brought to the fore the dispute regarding the
status of Tibet . His Holiness the Dalai Lama with his
idealistic commitment to peace had stated that Tibet could be
considered as an autonomous region of China . Beijing refused to
respond. It is unlikely that even the Dalai Lama’s offer would
be accepted by future generations of young Tibetans. Tibet is
culturally and historically not a part of China. Tibetans want
independence. It is not for India to take sides in this dispute.
The Indian government should state unambiguously that the status
of Tibet is disputed and India cannot recognize it as part of
China until such time as Beijing can reach agreement with
credible representatives of the Tibetan people.
The Ching dynasty of the Manchus had conquered China like the
Mongols before them. They conquered the adjacent territories of
the Mongols and the Uighurs. They annexed Tibet and Nepal to
make them protectorates. In 1911-12 the Chinese revolted and
overthrew the Ching dynasty to win independence. After the
overthrow of the Manchus Tibet may be considered as much part of
China as Myanmar would be Indian because Burma was part of the
British Empire.
In 1959 the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) met in
Geneva to study the status of Tibet. The Commission after
extensive research and study concluded: “The
important point which emerges as an historical fact at this time
is the ineffectiveness of the supposed Chinese authority in
Tibet .” Not surprisingly, the Jurists affirmed: “Personal
allegiance of the Dalai Lama towards the Manchu Emperor came to
an end. Tibet ’s expulsion of the Chinese in 1912 can fairly be
described as one of de facto independence and there are, as
explained, strong legal grounds for thinking that any form of
legal subservience to China had vanished.”
Beijing therefore should stop being obsessed with Arunachal
Pradesh. It should focus on Tibet and Xingjian. Both are
disputed territories. The disputes pertaining to their status
need to be resolved amicably through dialogue. India has a
dispute on Kashmir which is half occupied by Pakistan. The
Indian government’s efforts to resolve the issue are
unsatisfactory. But New Delhi is at least recognizing the
problem and trying to defuse it through dialogue.
Beijing on the other hand is frozen in an unrelenting and rigid
mindset. So is its favorite proxy in South Asia, Pakistan. Right
now Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani is in China. The
militant organizations in Pakistan are waging a war against
their former patrons, the Pakistan army. The Al Qaeda has urged
a jihad against China for its repression in Xingjian. One
deplores terrorism. But as many human rights activists
repeatedly state with regard to Kashmir, should not the roots of
the problems in Tibet , Xingjian, NWFP and Baluchistan be
addressed to end terrorism? One does hope that all the bleeding
hearts over Kashmir will support this demand ...
October 14, 2009
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