Venkatesan Vembu

Hong Kong: Chinese military journals have in recent days and weeks ratcheted up the tough talk against India, accusing it of going on the “same old path of confrontation with China as it had in 1962.”

The stepped-up – and excessively shrill – attack coincides with the unrest in Tibet, and what distinguishes it is that perhaps for the first time, the commentaries have singled out India for harsh criticism.

Given the Chinese-language commentaries were published in official journals, they must be presumed to have official endorsement, in which case they reflect a disquieting picture of official Chinese thinking on strategic affairs vis-à-vis India at a time when the Tibet unrest has manifestly strained relations between the two countries.

An article on the web site of the Beijing-based China Institute of International Strategic Studies, authoured by ‘Zhongguo Zhan Lue’ (meaning ‘China Strategy’, believed to be a pseudonym for a high-level Communist Party cadre), is particularly noteworthy for its hysterical tone and over-the-top jingoism.

Provocatively titled “A Warning to the Indian Government: Don’t Be Evil!”, the article claims that just as in 1962,when the Indian government “misjudged the situation” and precipitated a war on China “with the support of the two superpowers”, today India is on the “same old path of confrontation with China.”

Today, however, claims the author, the People’s Liberation Army has a stronger presence in Tibet after decades of deployment of high-altitude combat brigades, and “will not pull back 30 km” (as it had in 1962).

In the past decade, India had accelerated its military build-up, including N-weapons potential, and was “looking beyond Pakistan to realise its ambition of becoming a regional and global big-power,” the article maintained.

India considers China as its biggest obstacle to realising that aspiration, it added.

To deal with this “imaginary enemy”, India was stationing its border troops, carrying out military exercises to suppress China’s preparedness, and was importing arms for use against China. India, the author adds, should not “respond to kindness with treachery”.

India, the article further says, is “a very arrogant country, and so are its people.”

The author recalls the experience of a Chinese scholar who, on a visit to Mumbai, wanted to see the night skyline, but could only see empty darkness, and a slum.

Worse, an Indian scholar asked him if Shanghai had as many high-rises. Noting that Shanghai had over 1,000 highrises, the author says that similar experiences on that tour led Chinese scholars to conclude that Indians were given to excessive hubris.

Source : DNA