- Himalayan Rivers: Geopolitics and Strategic Perspectives – Indian Defence Review (Vol. 23.2)
I have mentioned the book Unrestricted Warfare, written by two Senior Colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. They argue that China should start surveying the ways to counter new forms of war as did Sun Tzu in his Art of Warfare over 2000 years ago.
One chapter speaks of “Ten Thousand Methods Combined as One: Combinations That Transcend Boundaries”. It is the art of combining different elements of these various forms of warfare. One of the many ways of unconventional warfare identified by them is ‘environmental warfare’.
India should certainly remain vigilant.
- Democracy Thwarted – June 4, 2008 (The Pioneer)
The External Affairs Minister of the largest democracy in the world will arrive in Beijing on June 4 for a four-day visit to China on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in which several thousand Chinese students were smashed by the tanks of the People’s Liberation Army. Of course, Mr Pranab Mukherjee’s visit has nothing to do with the ‘celebrations’. However, the mandarins of South Block could have pointed out to their Chinese counterparts that India is attached to democratic principles and a more auspicious date could have been found. They may have thought, “Why bother about Tiananmen when there is so much on Mr Mukherjee’s plate?”
- India-China: Imperfect harmony – October 16, 2007 (Sify.com)
Democracy is not the agenda of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. President Hu Jintao only proposed a small dose of ‘intra-party democracy’ when he presented his ‘Political Report’ during the opening conclave on October 15. However, Hu did promote the construction a ‘harmonious society’, making sure that the different political blocs are in a position to get their share of the current economic boom. But while the President mouthed the usual platitudes, such as ‘boosting people’s participation in politics in an orderly and incremental fashion,’ the political situation in China remains far from transparent.
- Deadend in Lhasa – October 2007 (Combat Law)
The Indian habit of sugar-coating Chinese sensibilities has always proven costly. Tibet is no exception while China has retracted from its promise to make it an autonomous region. Instead, they have been militarising the ’occupation’ with rail and road links so that they can colonise and subjugate it completely…
- Needed: Poorna Swaraj for Tibet – June 29, 2007 (Rediff)
If you have visited Dharamsala or any other place where Tibetan refugees live, you would have had the opportunity to hear modern Tibetan songs. The uncommon blend of traditional Tibetan tunes with a contemporary beat is particularly enjoyable. Although one is unable to grasp the lyrics, one can notice a word coming up again and again in all songs — rangzen. It means ’independence’ in Tibetan. Every young Tibetan longs for rangzen, even though nearly 20 years ago, the Dalai Lama had made his famous Strasbourg Proposal.
- The Peaceful Development of China – March 2007 (Sify)
A few days after the Indian lawmakers had listened to P.Chidambaram’s lackluster budget presentation, another similar exercise was performed by the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao in Beijing. The annual full session of the National People’s Congress, China’s Parliament was opened with great pomp on March 5.
- The Difficult Triangle – February 2007 (The Pioneer)
The Chinese way is to do something rather mild at first; then to wait a bit, and if it passes without objection, to say or do something stronger. But if we take objection to the first statement or action, they urge that it has been a misunderstanding, and cease, for a time at any rate, from troubling us further…
- The US-China Relations – January 2007
Two interesting documents, both related to US-China relations, have just been released. One deals with the first steps in the rapprochement between Washington and Beijing while the second focuses on the economic relations between the two nations today.
- Chinese Consolidation in Tibet – 2007 (South Asia Defence & Strategic Year Book)
The geographical situation of Tibet, ‘buffered’ between the two Asian giants: India and China, has made the recent history of the Roof of the World a tumultuous one. It was not always so.
- The Mc Mahon Line – January 2007 (House Calls)
In November 2006, India was shocked when Sun Yuxi, the Chinese Ambassador to India claimed in an interview to CNN-IBN that he still considered Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China. His declaration coincided with the arrival of the Chinese President Hu Jintao in Delhi…
- Visit of President Hu Jintao in India – December 2006 (Tibetan World)
President Hu Jintao has come and gone. Retrospectively, the Chinese leader’s four-day visit can best be described as ‘dull’. It was only the Tibetan protests which brought a bit of color to our TV screens or the front pages of newspapers: the monks with their maroon robes, the beautiful aprons of the ladies shouting slogans, the colorful Tibetan national flags or more sadly the immolation attempt by a youngster in Bangalore. The Joint Declaration considered the visit as ‘highly successful’, but nobody was really fooled.
- China: What’s ripe for settlement – November 20, 2006 (Rediff.com)
Today, we are told that India and China are finally true friends, and special commemorations are being held to remind the public of this new sentiment towards the Middle Kingdom. South Block’s new motto is ‘let us engage Beijing, let us do business’.Nobody can deny that this is good. But it might be interesting to look at what things are ‘not ripe for settlement’, to use Zhou Enlai’s words at the time of the Panchsheel Agreement in April 1954.
- When Zhou Enlai did not know about the McMahon Line! (Document)
Talks between Nehru-Zhou Enlai during the visit of Zhou Enlai to India (November-December 1956)
Extracts from the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (Volume 36)
- China: Will India repeat the mistakes of 1962? – November 17, 2006 (Rediff.com)
Fifty years ago Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai paid three state visits to India in less than two�months. It was the zenith of the brotherhood relationship. Premier Zhou was in India from November 28 to December 10, 1956, December 30 to January 3 and again from January 24 to 26, 1957.
This should undoubtedly be entered in the Guinness Book of Records, though Zhou’s purpose was certainly not to establish a record. The Chinese government was simply nervous about the Dalai Lama’s visiting India.
- Friendship with caution – November 06, 2006 (The Pioneer)
President Hu’s visit comes exactly 50 years after Zhou Enlai’s grand reception in Delhi; nothing much has changed since then…
- Selected documents on Indo-China Relations
Selected documents on Indo-China Relations
- China will be ready Will India be? – October 6, 2006 (Rediff.com)
In the meantime, Beijing’s propaganda, including their concept of the ’peaceful rise of China’, will continue to dominate the world media and lull India into a false sense of security. In 2008, the Middle Kingdom will surely demonstrate its might during the Games. It will coincide with the traditional Olympics truce. But what will happen during the following years in case events do not follow Beijing’s desired pattern?
One answer: China will be ready. Will India be?
- The second liberation of Tibet – September 3, 2006 (The New Indian Express)
The second liberation of Tibet – September 3, 2006
A rather strange piece of news appeared recently in the press: a German Google Earth user spotted a military base in China’s Northern plains. There would be nothing extraordinary in this if the free satellite imagery software had not shown an accurate scale model of a highly sensitive stretch of the disputed Sino-Indian border in the Aksai Chin area of Ladakh…
- Will the Brahmaputra will be diverted? (South Asia Politics)
Water War in South Asia?
Brahmaputra: Dam & Diversion
- The Simla Convention: Ninety Two Years Later
The Simla Convention: Ninety Two Years Later
(Colonial India: a Centenary Tribute to Prof. K.K. Datta,
Edited by Prof Surendra Gopal, Veer Kunwar Singh University, Arrah,
2006, pp 140-157)
- The Train to Lhasa – October 1, 2006
In recent weeks, Beijing projected the railway line from Golmud (Qinghai province) to the capital of the Roof of the World, as one of the greatest technological feats ever achieved. But…
- Unnatural lakes – August 21, 2004 (The Pioneer)
Today, it is surprising, to say the least, that last month’s friends cannot even help each other in times of distress. The facts: An artificial lake at Pareechu in Tibet was created, according to the Chinese authorities, by seasonal landslides. Experts agree that if it bursts, there would be devastating effects in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh…
- Beijing’s Arunachal card – July 28, 2003 (Rediff.com)
If one looks at the issues India has been facing since Independence, one sees a long tale of failed negotiations even when India had a stronger moral (and often military) position than the opposite camp. The main reason behind all these failures seems to be this genetic craving for friendship…
- Aksai Chin for Arunachal? – July 25, 2003 (Rediff.com)
It appears that once again, despite the prime minister’s will the babudom machinery reigns supreme on Indian foreign affairs and nobody in India has (and will ever have?) the power to change it. This lead us to the core issue: the border row between India and China…
- From Top of the Party to Top of the World – December 10, 2002 (Rediff.com)
Media reported that very little was known about China’s new boss. However, one part of his life is quite well documented: the period before he ascended to the standing committee of the Politburo in 1992. At that time, the core leader of the Forth Generation was secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region in Lhasa.
- The life of the ’Indian’ Dalai Lama, born in Tawang (Tibetan Review)
On the Footsteps of the Precious Ocean of Pure Melody
The cuckoo bird from the land of Mon brings rain,
It descends from the sky
It brings blessings to the earth.
Life grows and blossoms.
When the cuckoo bird comes from Moon’
My lover and I join as one
In body, heart and mind.
