India China Border Faceoff Archives - Lokmarg

China Has Unilaterally Tried To Change LAC: Jaishankar

By LokMarg 3rd January 2023

External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar on Monday lambasted China for trying to unilaterally change the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

In an interview with the Austrian ZIB2 podcast, a daily news magazine of ORF television, Jaishankar said, “We had an agreement not to unilaterally change the LAC, which they have tried to unilaterally do. So there is, I think, an issue, a perception that we have which derives directly from our experiences.”
The Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake in the west of the LAC, have hosted flashpoints in recent years. In the east Tawang was the site of the latest India-China scuffle.

“I think there’s a larger concern based on our experiences. The concern is that we had agreements with China not to amass forces in our border areas, and they have not observed those agreements, which is why we have the currently tense situation that we do,” he said.

Recently, India and China held the 17th Round of Corps Commander Level Meeting at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Chinese side on December 20 and agreed to maintain security and stability on the ground in the Western Sector.

Speaking about China trying to change the status quo, he said that China may blame India for not following the agreements, however, the satellite pictures could clearly show who was at the fault.

“Now, where else the status quo may change or not change? I would hesitate as a foreign minister to predict publicly. I may have my own views and assessments, but I certainly can share my experience. And my experience is that written agreements were not observed and that we have seen levels of military pressure, which, in our view, has no justification. China would say the opposite. They would say that India had not obeyed different agreements. But obviously, no, I think it’s difficult for China to say that. For this reason, the record is very clear, because today there’s a lot of transparency. You have satellite pictures. If you see who moved the forces to the border areas first, I think the record is very clear. So it’s very difficult for China to say what you suggested they could,” said Jaishankar.

Commenting on India which is likely to overtake China as the most populous country, and its place in world politics, Jaishankar said, “India will probably overtake China as the world’s most populous country within this year. Is this fact of any political significance to India, or is it just a mere statistic? You know, we’ll know that when we reach there, won’t we? Because we have never used numbers in that manner. Maybe other countries have. I would still say it is a statistic to a large extent,” to ZIB2.

He also highlighted the need for reforms in the United Nations, saying that the world’s most populous country is not among the permanent members of the Security Council.

“What does it say about the state of the UN? If that is the case? So it’s both a yes and a no. It’s partly a statistic, but I think it’s a statistic that means a lot. For several years, you have called for a permanent seat on the Security Council as if Brazil as Japan, or Germany. How long will it take, from your point of view, till this reform of the Council will actually become reality? Well, ideally, we’d like it yesterday, of course, but the problem, I think, is that those who are today enjoying the benefits of permanent membership clearly are not in a hurry to see the reform. I think it’s a very short-sighted view, in my opinion, because at the end of the day, the credibility of the UN, and frankly, their own interests and effectiveness, is at stake. So my sense is it will take some time, hopefully not too much time,” said Jaishankar.

He also underscored that the UN is not represented evenly, he said, “I can see a growing body of opinion among UN members who believe that there must be change. It’s not just us. You have entire Africa, entire Latin America left out developing countries vastly underrepresented, I think, the state of the world. This was an organization invented in 1945. It’s 2023. And when you would have to guess for a year when this will happen, what would it be? No, I wouldn’t guess, because I know the complexities of this process. It’s a tough one. I would be honest with you. It’s a tough one. But I don’t think we should give up because it’s a tough one. On the contrary, because it’s a tough one, we should actually up the ante, increase the feeling in bad parts of the world that this reform is essential.” (ANI)

It’s Not 1962 Anymore: Arunachal CM Pema On Faceoff

By LokMarg 13th December 2022

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday, reacting to the Tawang face-off, said that India’s soldiers would give a befitting reply to anyone who “tries to transgress” the Line of Actual Control.

Khandu said that the Yangtse area of the Tawang sector where the face-off took place between the Indian and Chinese troops took place on December 9, comes under his constituency and he meets the Jawans and villagers of the area every year.

In a stern warning, the Chief Minister recalled the 1962 war in which India was attacked by the Chinese Army and said that anyone who attempts to transgress, Indian soldiers will give a “befitting reply”. In 1962, China had invaded India in Ladakh, and across the McMahon Line in the then North-East Frontier Agency.

“Yangtse is under my assembly constituency & every year I meet the Jawans & villagers of the area. It’s not 1962 anymore. If anyone tries to transgress, our brave soldiers will give a befitting reply,” Khandu tweeted quoting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s tweet in which he was briefing the Rajya Sabha earlier today on the Tawang situation.

Hailing the soldiers, Khandu said, “Our brave Indian Army is not answering brick with stone, our brave Indian army is answering brick with iron.”

Earlier today. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Rajya Sabha that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops tried to transgress the Line of Actual Control in the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh Tawang Sector and unilaterally change the status quo but they went back to their locations due to timely intervention of Indian military commanders.

Giving a statement in the Rajya Sabha, the Defence Minister assured the Upper House that “our forces are committed to protecting our territorial integrity and will continue to thwart any attempt made on it”.

Singh also displayed confidence that “this entire House will stand united in supporting our soldiers in the brave effort.”

Explaining the incident, the Minister said: “I would like to brief this august House about an incident on our border in the Tawang Sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, 2022.”

“On December 9, 2022, PLA troops tried to transgress the LAC in the Yangtse area of Tawang Sector and unilaterally change the status quo. The Chinese attempt was contested by our troops in a firm and resolute manner. The ensuing face-off led to a physical scuffle in which the Indian Army bravely prevented the PLA from transgressing into our territory and compelled them to return to their posts,” said Singh.

He further said “the scuffle led to injuries to a few personnel on both sides”, and clarified that “there are no fatalities or serious casualties on our side”.

“Due to the timely intervention of Indian military commanders, PLA soldiers went back to their locations,” Singh said.

As a follow-up of the incident, the Minister further said, the local commander in the area held a “flag meeting with his counterpart on December 11, 2022, to discuss the issue in accordance with established mechanisms”.

“The Chinese side was asked to refrain from such actions and maintain peace and tranquility along the border. The issue has also been taken up with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels,” Singh said.

The Minister also assured the House that “our forces are committed to protecting our territorial integrity and will continue to thwart any attempt made on it”.

“I am confident that this entire House will stand united in supporting our soldiers in their brave effort,” the Minister added.

The clash near Yangtse along the LAC in the sensitive sector took place last Friday amid the over 30-month border standoff between the two sides in eastern Ladakh.

“On December 9, PLA troops contacted the LAC in Tawang Sector which was contested by own (Indian) troops in a firm and resolute manner. This face-off led to minor injuries to few personnel from both sides,” the Indian Army has said in a statement.

“Both sides immediately disengaged from the area. As a follow up of the incident, own (Indian) commander in the area held a flag meeting with his counterpart to discuss the issue in accordance with structured mechanisms to restore peace and tranquillity,” it said. (ANI)

India, China Must Get Out Of Geopolitics Trap: Outgoing Envoy

By LokMarg 25th October 2022

Sun Weidong, the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to India on Tuesday highlighted the profound ties and common ground between China and India.

In his farewell statement, he said, “We should break out of the ‘geopolitics trap’ and find a new path that is different from the past. There is enough room in the world for China and India to develop together, and the two countries and peoples should have enough wisdom to find a way to live in peace and achieve win-win cooperation between the two big neighbouring and emerging countries.”

Sun further elaborated that if the Western theory of geopolitics is applied to the China-India relationship, then major neighbouring countries will inevitably view each other as threats and rivals.

“Consequently, competition and confrontation will be the main mode of interaction, and a zero-sum game will be the inevitable result. But the reality is that geographical proximity is an objective existence. It should be an opportunity for us to have more interaction and cooperation, tap our potential and learn from and complement each other. If we view it as a kind of bad fate, it will make us suspect and undercut each other, compete and confront with each other, or even become rivals,” said the outgoing Chinese envoy.

He urged China and India to make the right choice and contribute to peace and development in the region and beyond.

Speaking about the dialogue mechanism between the two countries, he said, “We should make full use of all the communication channels, and deepen mutual understanding in order to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation.”

Notably, China optimized the visa application process for Indian citizens to travel to China and resumed processing visa applications for students pursuing long-term study, and people conducting business, work and family visits.

Up to now, more than 1,800 visas have been issued to Indian students. Sun hoped that there would be more and more exchange of visits.

Stressing the importance of managing and resolving differences between the two nations, he said, “We should seek common ground while reserving differences and properly handle the differences. China and India are important neighbours of each other. It is only natural for China and India to have some differences. The key is how to handle the differences. We should be aware that the common interests of the two countries are greater than the differences. Meanwhile, the two sides should strive to manage and resolve differences, and look for a proper solution through dialogue and consultation, instead of defining China-India relations by differences.”

Sharing his experience in India during his tenure as Chinese Ambassador to India, he said, “The past 3 years and 3 months have been an unforgettable period in my life. On the occasion of my departure, I would like to express my most heartfelt appreciation to all my friends for your care for China’s development and support to the cause of China-India friendship, and to friends for your support and assistance to me in the performance of my duties.”

Sun said that through joint efforts of both sides, China and India can bring back relations on the right track and urged to promote the sound and steady development of bilateral ties to deliver benefits to the two countries. (ANI)

Indian Sports And Chinese Games

By Mahendra Ved 18th July 2021

The Indian athletes at the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics will be seen wearing ‘unbranded’ sports apparel. No more Chinese designs, logos and sponsorship. With this symbolic, globally visible (since it will be visuals-only games) parting of ways with the hostile neighbour, India has also joined the global China-versus-the United States game, on the latter’s side.

The change has come after last year’s military skirmishes on the disputed border. The Indian Olympic Association has suspended its collaboration with Chinese giant Li Ning that kitted the Indian athletes and sponsored their travel. This was being done, the IOA said, to respect “sentiments of the people of the country.”

Prior to the border incidents, then sports minister Kiren Rijiju, incidentally a Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh that China claims as its territory, had said: “Li Ning designed the official sports kit inspired by India’s national colours and integrated unique graphics to emote the energy and pride of the Indian Olympic Team.”

The deal was reported to be worth INR 50 million. Li Ning was the Indian team’s apparel sponsor at the Rio Olympics five years ago and had also provided uniforms for the 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games.

Tokyo Games big medal hopeful, shuttler PV Sindhu, was also sponsored by Li Ning. All that is over, at least for now. Last year, till the border incidents, Vivo, the telecom giant had sponsored India Premier League, the multi-million cricketing tournament. It returned briefly this year, apparently due to some contract obligations.

India relies heavily on products and raw materials from China in nearly every sport. According to the Department of Commerce’s data for 2018-2019, over half of India’s sports equipment was imported from China. This includes footballs to table tennis balls and shuttlecocks, tennis and badminton racquets and their stringing machines, mountain climbing and adventure sports gear, gym apparatus and athletics gear including javelins and high jump bars.

ALSO READ: India-China Faceoff – Shatranj Vs Weiqi

Forget the no-politics-in-sports idea. Popular sentiments over the ‘betrayal’ on the border should have triggered a “boycott Chinese goods” campaign. But Prime Minister Modi’s government, keen on taking political credit, does not wish to stir the economic and trade cauldron.

This is not child’s play. The global toy market is about $100 billion, but as Modi lamented at the recent “Toycathon”, urging Indian toymakers to be ‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) in making toys for children, that India’s share is only around $1.5 billion. Worse, “we import about 80 percent of our toys,” and worse still (which he didn’t say), 70 percent of this 80 percent come from China.

India is ‘critically dependent’ on China in imports across 86 tariff lines, a Group of Ministers (GoM) reported last December. Line items include consumer electronics, computer hardware, telephone equipment, electronic items, and air conditioners and refrigerators. Also, China has the largest share in India’s imports — more than 18 per cent in April-September 2020. This share has risen since, despite the border incidents and despite the pandemic, as China, unlike India, has managed to curb the spread of Covid-19 and kept its factories running.

The Indian authorities have banned a hundred Chinese apps and more are in the pipeline. Only, the Chinese presence in India’s market – name any product – remains heavy, a fact of everyday life. Two-way trade in 2020 reached $87.6 billion, down by 5.6 percent, the trade deficit declined to a five year-low of $45.8 billion. “The trade deficit is not in dollars, it is in overdependence,” Sanjay Chadha, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in January.

Cell-phone has fully integrated into an Indian’s life. Visit any home or market place and see how Chinese brands dominate. They commanded 75 percent of India’s smartphone market in 2020, up from 71 percent in 2019. Given their spread, pushing Germans, French, South Koreans among others to the margins of a growing market, it is doubtful if India’s online education of millions of students, compelled by Covid-19, would have been possible.

Cell-phone is just one example. Computers and other communications gadgets and apps are hugely Chinese. Fear of a possible suspension of Chinese tech-support for their maintenance persists. Keen to avoid any such problem in future, this writer purchased a Taiwanese brand laptop last year, only to find that it was “Made in China” under Taiwanese licence.

It is no consolation that the US itself is having to urge its own basketball stars to shun Li Ning sports products because the Chinese giant is said to be using cotton sourced from its Xinjiang region where the authorities are accused of suppressing minority Muslims. Incidentally, in a tit-for-tat, Li Ning had itself suspended cooperation with the Americans earlier, “in national interests”, after American producers backed the anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong.

ALSO READ: Apps Are Only Tip Of China’s Presence In India

The Indian story is similar to many countries. Only, not everyone has a disputed border with China. Neither is there nudging from a strategic partner like the United States to ‘balance’ the Asian scene. In a sense, India pays double price when it cannot deal with erstwhile ally Russia, Iran or anyone the US dislikes.

India’s case remains unique for several reasons. Besides a border that gets ‘live’ from time to time, and talks have made little headway in the last six decades, it has reasons to feel ‘surrounded.’ The Himalayan ranges became pregnable in the last century. For long years, one debated on the “string of Pearls”, of China developing military bases on islands all around the Indian Ocean. The region was for long ‘Indian’ — its backyard, in broad maritime terms – no longer so.

This is old story. The Chinese deep pockets have won over just all of India’s neighbours after China formally launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). All South Asians have joined in, with varying outcome, but with bright hope of the Chinese money and technology being available — for a price. India is the sole ‘outsider’. Its pockets are not deep, nor has it established a good record of completing projects in its neighbourhood, yielding space to China.

For long years, there was a quiet pride that India and China managed well their economic and trade ties, despite an unsolved border dispute. It was called pragmatism and was contrasted with India-Pakistan, wherein the trade was restricted due to mistrust. India would show the Chinese example and accuse Pakistan of being cussed. While that remains, the China story has taken a beating. This is unlikely to normalise for long.

The conflict-from-cradle rivalry with Pakistan has taken India miles ahead of the recalcitrant neighbour. But even that is now becoming thin. China has taken resolute striders in Pakistan in the shape of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), investing billions in building infrastructure that Pakistan could never dream of despite its decades of alliance with the West – the US in particular. Now, China, the “iron brother”, is helping out, in return for entry to the Indian Ocean. Now, the two are about to extend their collaboration, howsoever unequal and weighed in China’s favour, to a land-locked Afghanistan. Whether or not Pakistan gains “strategic depth” against India in future, a government in Kabul that may not be hospitable to India, with this extension of CPEC bears the potential of giving it “economic depth.”

Call it “Chinese East India Company”, or talk of the inevitable debt trap – who cares? In the next decade, China will have laid infrastructure that is as good, or even better than, India, across South Asia. And its CPEC will have created a significant class or rich politicians and civil and military officials in Pakistan who can, supported by military and economic heft from China, can afford to stare down at India.

The writer can be reached at mahendraved07@gmail.com