EDITS | Thursday, December 10, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Standing up to the dragon
G Parthasarathy
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to Washington, DC signalled a more realistic approach to India’s relations with China. For decades our leaders and diplomats have been defensive, apologetic and even obsequious when speaking about our relations with our northern neighbour. China, however, has never hesitated to speak disparagingly about India in the capitals its leaders visit. Moreover, apart from transferring nuclear weapons technology and arming Pakistan to the teeth, China has continuously encouraged anti-Indian sentiments in South Asia and spared no effort to undermine our ‘Look East’ policies by seeking to exclude India from the emerging economic and security architecture of East and South-East Asia. New Delhi has remained tongue tied even when Beijing has violated its international commitments by providing nuclear weapons and missiles to its all weather friend, Pakistan.
Starting with the visit of the Dalai Lama to Tawang, India has signalled that it will not countenance China’s outrageous territorial claims on Arunachal Pradesh, its attempts to block multilateral development assistance for projects in this State and its absurd practice of issuing a separate category of visas for residents of Jammu & Kashmir. India has also, for the first time, objected to China’s aid projects in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and has rejected the notion that Beijing can send thousands of unskilled workers to implement projects for which it has been awarded contracts in India, misusing provisions of business visas that India liberally issues. Most significantly, Defence Minister AK Anthony has publicly expressed concern about the growing security nexus between China and Pakistan.
The Prime Minister has a reputation for being restrained and understated in his comments. But one did see a new resolve and a new facet to his diplomacy during his visit to Washington, DC. New Delhi has realised that in US President Barack Obama it has someone who is unsure of the intrinsic strength and resilience of the country he leads and diffident about whether the US can surmount its current economic difficulties.
The Obama Administration has tended to be deferential in its approach to China, leading the Middle Kingdom to assume a new assertiveness in its international relations. This became apparent when Mr Obama sent an emissary to inform the Dalai Lama that he would be unable to receive the Tibetan spiritual leader, prior to his visit to Beijing. Evidently emboldened by the Obama Administration’s approach, China has become aggressive on issues of maritime and land boundaries with countries ranging from Japan, Vietnam and India to Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. It has even sought to undermine international confidence in the US dollar by instigating oil producing countries to delink oil prices from the greenback.
In his very first interaction in Washington, DC, Mr Singh made it clear that he did not share prevailing pessimism about the future of the US economy. Affirming his confidence he added: “As far as I can see right now, there is no substitute for the dollar.” He described the US economic downturn as a “temporary setback”.
But it was at the Centre for Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, that the Prime Minister really gave vent to his feelings. Responding to questions about China’s ‘superior’ economic performance over India, Mr Singh retorted: “I have no doubt that China’s growth performance is superior to India’s performance. But I have always believed that there are other values which we are more important than the growth of GDP. I think respect for the rule of law, respect for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious rights are important values also.”
In effect, the American audience was told that the absence of democratic freedoms and the inability to respect the sentiments of non-Han minorities like the Buddhist Tibetans and the Muslim Uighurs in Xingjian were not worthy of a country with pretensions of being an emerging superpower. The apparent modesty about India’s economic performance was subtly combined with references to India’s high rates of savings and investment and the reminder that despite the bleak global scenario India had grown by 6.7 per cent last year.
In a perceptive analysis about misgivings in India on the Obama Administration’s policies, the Heritage Foundation’s leading scholar on South Asia, Ms Lisa Curtis noted: “Backsliding on India-US relations is fed by a perception that the Obama Administration seeks a conciliatory policy towards China that facilitates its growing influence throughout the Asia-Pacific, including India’s traditional sphere of influence in South Asia.” Ms Curtis speaks about justifiable concerns in India that Mr Obama is “more interested in placating China than managing the balance of power in Asia”. That Mr Singh had concerns about the US conceding the role of a regional hegemon in Asia to China was evident from his account of his discussions in the White House when he confirmed that the talks with Mr Obama not only covered traditional issues like high technology transfers, cooperation in space and nuclear power, terrorism and the AfPak region, but also “covered the need to have an open an inclusive architecture in the Asia-Pacific region”.
It remains to be seen what impact Mr Singh’s candid observations will have on emerging American policies in India’s extended neighbourhood. While American security experts like Bruce Reidel have cautioned that disastrous consequences await the US and the civilised world if the Taliban triumphs in Afghanistan, much will depend on how firmly and dexterously Mr Obama handles the AfPak challenge. Ill-advised American efforts to talk to the Taliban using Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (longstanding supporters of the Taliban) as intermediaries, have been contemptuously spurned by Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Similarly, having encouraged Chinese ambitions and bloated Chinese egos, it remains to be seen if the Obama Administration will be able to fashion policies that promote a stable, equitable and viable balance of power in Asia and the Asia-Pacific. New Delhi, in turn, has to carry forward its more assertive and long overdue policies on China. While it is imperative for India to avoid jingoistic or provocative rhetoric, there should be no hesitation in exposing China’s continuing nuclear and missile proliferation in relation to Pakistan and its efforts to contain India across the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, while making it clear that Indian territory is non-negotiable.
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