Counter Current – July 17, 2020
Oppose U.S. moves to drag India-China conflict into its Indo-Pacific Strategy
by Ramakrishnan
Human Rights violation in Tibet is a bogey. It is an alibi for interference by US.
PM Modi had said, less than one year ago, that the Mahabalipuram (Chennai) summit (Oct 11-12, 2019) had begun “a New Era of Cooperation between the two countries”.
He had famously said, about his summit with Xi Jinping:
“ We have decided that we would prudently manage our differences without letting them turn into disputes, that we would be sensitive to each other’s’ concerns, and that our relations strive towards world peace and stability.”
“The two sides decided to designate 2020 as year of India-China Cultural and People-to-people Exchanges” and to deepen all-sided relations.
Thus 2020 apparently began accordingly. That was so even after corona pandemic commenced, in India too: India and China had mutually cooperated on Covid; exchanged medicines and goods; ICMR imported lakhs of test kits; India even declined to call it Wuhan virus, despite US pressures. India even decided to allow 5G trials, much against US diktat.
Early May 2020 saw a couple of skirmishes – even bloody fist fights on May 5 near Pangong Tso, like in Galwan valley – along LAC, but they were rather underplayed initially. Then manifested a sharp turn:
WHO’s World Health Assembly, May 18-19 Meet, where India backed a US-led Draft Resolution against China (on Covid-19) marked “a decisive shift in India’s stance towards China,” it was observed.
After this WHO meet, it was recalled by an Australian : China has accurately called Australia acting as an attack dog of the US. And QUAD was activated against China, India joined. India is now thinking of inviting Australia, for the first time, to Malabar Naval Exercises in which US and Japan were participants earlier. Thus they will be QUAD Exercises, and will be taken as aimed at China.
India led by UPA and now NDA have been pro-US, no doubt. Nothing new in it. But they did not take an anti-China belligerent position in recent past, carried on business with it like US itself did, as part of what they both claimed as multi-polarity and strategic autonomy : We are engaging with US, Russia, China etc. India joined SCO, and China-backed bank, AIIB despite US wrath. Modi visited even Iran, the Red Rag for US, in May 2016 to sign MOUs for massive deals.
The latest shift is different from that policy; whether it is divergence or divorce from that policy of strategic autonomy is yet to be observed.See two developments for instance:
AIIB, a global Bank set up with China’s initiative, announced $ 750 million loan on June 17, on top of $500 M in May, to help India battle Covid impact, this despite India’s role in WHO Meet May18.
Talks at various levels in several rounds led to India China agreements on disengagement and de-escalation of troops, even being executed on the ground, despite jingoistic propaganda.
There is progress in talks. Clouding the efforts for peace, the hawks are playing up jingoism. They are aided and abetted in this by USA, and Dalai Lama and Tibet are pawns in this great game.
Dalai Lama is at the centre of a new great game in Himalayas between India China and Tibet, wrote Prof. Phunchok Stobdan, former diplomat, himself a resident of Ladakh, Senior Fellow IDSA, and an expert on related affairs, and Foreign Policy. (theprint.com , 22 October,2019). In fact that was an extract of a book by him: The Great Game In the Buddhist Himalayas. ( Penguin Random House, 2019).
The Game authored by USA needs to be understood. Aksai Chin and Ladakh have been part of the hot spots. Amit Shah ominously declared, in August 2019, when Ladakh was separated from Kashmir, that India would get them back. Many experts believed it is one trigger for the current face-off, unprecedented in 45 years. Citing this face-off as an alibi, US recently shifted 25000 plus troops to India-Pacific. And it has been allowed to meddle in Arunachal Pradesh,
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US centre in disputed Tawang of Arunachal pradesh
theprint.in, 31 October, 2019 reported:
US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster’s was invited as chief guest to Tawang Festival, in Arunachal in October 2019, said its Chief Minister Pema Khandu, an outcome of the envoy’s own written request to visit the border district, a part of “South Tibet” as China calls it. Dalai Lama also treated it as such until 2008 .
The CM underplayed it but Alice Wells, the Trump administration’s Assistant Secretary of State in-charge of South Asia, tweeted Oct 30 : “.@USAmbIndia’s #Tawang visit highlights resolute U.S. support for Indian sovereignty and commitment to local partnerships.”
(It was not merely verbal)
US Embassy spokesperson said Juster and Khandu discussed “how the U.S. Mission to India can enhance its cooperation with the state”….The US has increased its activities in Arunachal and is working jointly with the state on developing 70 smart villages…
The programme is being led by Prof. Solomon Darwin, executive director of the Garwood Centre for Corporate Innovation, who is known as the father of the smart village movement…The work also focuses on helping self-help groups in the state and finding an international market for their products.
These moves come at a time when US-China relations are strained. ..A similar visit to Arunachal Pradesh in 2016 by then-US ambassador to India Richard Verma had sparked a terse exchange with China.
That is how US strategy and Business are rolled into one, penetrate sensitive areas where no Indian is allowed to enter freely, facilitated by a comprador centre.
US had entered Arunachal Pradesh and adopted scores of villages. US Ambassador got himself invited to Tawang, one main centre of India China dispute, amid China’s protests, last October. US investments are being invited in that sensitive area, where nobody is allowed to travel without a special permit. “The state has huge potential in the form of natural resources …and to become one of the most prosperous states in India”, said the CM Pema Khandu. (Arunachal Times, Oct 29, 2019)
All this has more strategic value, and US has its Indo-Pacific Strategy. This is the second time a US envoy visits the sensitive areas; earlier it was in 2016 October.
Let alone China, Dalai Lama did not recognize, until 2008, Arunachal Pradesh as part of India, i.e., for 50 years after his arrival in India. He said it is part of Tibet, itself a part of China. Now US envoy said his visit marks US backing for India’s sovereignty claims there, and provoked China. Taiwan even now does not recognize it, but India, at behests of US, is seeking to play Taiwan card also against China. This May 22, after LAC clashes, two BJP MPs were dispatched to greet new President of Taiwan, which India does not recognize officially, the first time ever.
All this shows how US is gripping India’s foreign policy, promoting the idea to abandon One China Policy, and antagonizing China.
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Recent shifts in India’s China policy are part of a Great Game
The shift – rather the push for it – was not sudden, it has been in the works. Indian hawks have been pushing their agenda to draw India-China conflict into the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the American super power. Chennai summit happened in spite of them; in fact the summit was uncertain only a few days earlier.
Indian Hawks Join Hands With US Vultures Against China, was an article written just before June 15 night clash, and published June 16, 2020. It was a marker of the shifts. In fact it was a part of a series on the subject by this writer.
https://countercurrents.org/2020/06/indian-hawks-join-hands-with-us-vultures-against-china/
The following were pointed out in that article:
– Bill to recognize TAR (Tibet) as an ‘independent country’ introduced in US House of Representatives on May 19, 2020.
–“There has been pressure on India by USA …to come down heavily on China… US pressure regarding Taiwan, Tibet…ThePrint, 13 May, 2020.
–World should give recognition to Taiwan and Tibet -Comment in wionews.com, May 20, 2020.
— “Join anti-China global platform… Revise ‘One China’ policy” –Seshadri Chari, former editor, Organizer, RSS voice, June 12.
— PM Modi “maintained India’s appeasement policy towards China,” alleged Brahma Chellany in an article June 10, 2020.
The above are some of the headlines in recent weeks, which are a pointer to what is working in the hawkish minds of Indian Establishment, as part of a campaign against China by US vultures. This alliance would only benefit merchants of death, the war industry. The above views are consolidated in a webinar on June 12, as reported briefly…
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Dalai Lama 85 celebrations revealed it is all part of US strategy
Dalai Lama turns 85 today…That was an article, Part-4 in this series published on July 6, 2020.“ For 60 years, he served US imperialism, from Indian soil, playing havoc with India-China Relations”, it highlighted exposing the historical aspect.
Now in this Part-5, we go into HOW it is all dovetailed into US strategy, planning for decades ahead.
Dalai Lama 85 was an occasion hyped and exploited by both US and India for this purpose. The monk had served them for 61 years; and now they are planning for 50 more years to perpetuate turmoil in the region, to de-stabilize China, and to sabotage any chances of an Asian Century led by India and China. Thus they are seeking to rescue the hated imperialists, led by the war-monger US, who are facing an all round crisis, aggravated all the more by Covid-19.
US is in one of its worst phases of decline comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Given its crises, it has been seeking to shift its burden on to others’ shoulders – QUAD is one such instrument of outsourcing its hegemonism – and Trump represented that by his apparently Quixotic policies covered up by the high-sounding America First Policy. Trade wars, anti-China offensive on Covid-19, activation of QUAD, the NATO of the East, shifting of some US troops to the Indo-Pacific as part of a Strategy, proposed QUAD naval exercises in Indian Ocean. All these marked the shift.
The Strategic, global hegemonic, interests of US are being mixed up with President Trump’s narrow political goals of a re-election.
The same game is on in India mixing up the goals of regional hegemonism with political goals of the Sangh parivar. The so-called Opposition, more so the Congress, instead of opposing the dangerous moves deleterious to peace and development of India and its people, is playing one-upmanship in pushing jingoism.
The geo-strategic moves against China in Asia Pacific, renamed Indo-Pacific to rope in India, were unfolding in recent weeks.
There has been speculation, in imperialist camp, on post-Dalai Lama scenario. He was used as its pawn for 61 years, operating from a base India provided.
Tibetan Newsdeskﾠ Phayul July 7 reported Dalai Lama 85 function. CTA President discussed Dalai Lama’s achievements in exile over the decades, noting the international awards and titles..
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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