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Is China becoming Asia’s Policeman?

One accusation leveled by the Indian Left against the US is that in a unipolar world, the US is trying to be the global Policeman. Be that as it may, a question to be posed to the Left is: Is China usurping the role as Asia’s Policeman?

The ruthless stand taken by China against Tibetan protestors and the way it is dictating terms to other countries on the issue of providing security to Olympic torch have demonstrated China’s increasing arrogance and assertiveness in international relations.

It has asked countries like India not to allow protests by Tibetans, disregarding the fact that unlike dictatorship, a democratic country cannot suppress peaceful mass protests.

Recently, China created a diplomatic flutter in New Delhi by reiterating Beijing’s claim that Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state, is part of `Chinese territory’ .China’s predetermined position on Arunachal Pradesh has rendered the ongoing bilateral talks on the border dispute meaningless.

Now, in a startling move, the Chinese military establishment has warned India against “recent military exercises and re-positioning of troops in north Bengal”.

An article titled `A warning to the Indian Government: Don’t Be Evil” posted on the website of the China Institute of International Strategic Studies compares the present situation to 1962 “when India misjudged the situation and initiated a war with the support of two superpowers”. India is on the “same old path of confrontation with China” at present, the article adds.

Doesn’t it amount to interfering in India’s internal affairs and questing the freedom and right of Indian defence establiment to decide where to deploy its forces?

Defence Minister A K Antony who visited Arunachal Pradesh recently found vast military buildup by China on the Arunachal border and China has not so far explained the reasons for it.

One obvious reason for China’s hardening of stand vis-à-vis India is that it wants smooth passage for the Olympic torch across India. The other is that China doesn’t want Tibetans to use Indian soil as a launchpad for its campaign for a free homeland.

India has so far chosen to respond to China’s arm-twisting tactics with stoic silence. India didn’t react when some nations expressed grave concern over the ecological and military implications of China building a highway to the Everest base camp purportedly to smooth the way for the carrying of the Olympic torch up to the highest peak in the world.

Indian Left is charged by its political rivals with carrying out the Chinese agenda by opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal. China obviously sees nuclear co-operation between US and India as a threat to its hegemonic dreams in Asia.

It is time for the foreign policy-makers in India to decipher if its diplomatic silence is emboldening China to heap more insults on us and weaken India’s emergence as a rival world power.

Source: P.Venugopal, India Syndicate