Clash between Asian giants led to a brief war in 1962
Peter Goodspeed, National Post
Published: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The world’s next two superpowers are heating up their rivalry over a 45-year-old unresolved border dispute.
India and China, home to two-fifths of the world’s population and with its two fastest-growing economies, have suddenly reopened the bitter battle that led to a brief war in 1962.
At stake are tens of thousands of square kilometres of barren and inaccessible land, an area in the eastern Himalayas once described by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, as “barren mountaintops where not even a blade of grass grows.”
China is claiming more than 90,000 square kilometres in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders Bhutan and Tibet.
India in turn regards all of Arunachal Pradesh as “an integral part of India” and insists China is illegally occupying large swaths of the state seized during the month-long war in 1962.
It also argues China is occupying 38,000 square kilometres of its territory in Kashmir, which it says was illegally ceded to Beijing by Pakistan.
For nearly 50 years the border disputes have simmered in the background, threatening to disrupt relations between Asia’s two giants. Two years ago, as they moved to improve relations and boost trade, Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao signed a strategic partnership agreement in New Delhi that aimed to shift their countries from confrontation to co-operation.
Both promised to resolve their border disputes through a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution, through equal and friendly consultations.”
Since then, diplomats have held seven rounds of talks on the disputed borders and were preparing for an eighth in July.
But over the weekend, relations between the two nations suddenly plunged into the deep freeze when Chinese officials refused to issue a visa to an Indian government official from Arunachal Pradesh who was part of an exchange program that was supposed to send 107 mid-ranking Indian bureaucrats to Beijing and Shanghai.
At the last minute, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi issued 106 visas for program participants, but insisted the 107th — for the Arunachal Pradesh official — was unnecessary because he was already a citizen of China.
The move infuriated India, which immediately cancelled the confidence-building visit.
“The incident is no mere diplomatic snub,” the Times of India warned yesterday. “It has created a loud discordant note in bilateral relations.”
India is still sensitive to the fact it was China which in 1962 , suddenly abandoned the search for political accommodation on the border dispute and invaded Indian-held territory.
After a month of fighting in mountainous terrain at high altitude, the hostilities fizzled into a prolonged stalemate. But not before 1,000 Indian and Chinese soldiers had died.
Ever since, both sides have stationed nearly 400,000 troops in border regions and periodically engaged in skirmishes.
Lately, China may have thought the military balance had shifted in its favour with completion of the 1,118-kilometre Qinghai-Tibet railway and other military infrastructure projects in Tibet.
Beijing may also be feeling a little overconfident in its traditional regional rivalry with India. China has taken advantage of normalized trade relations to flood the subcontinent with cheap televisions, toys and other products that have seen Chinese exports to India jump by 61% since 2005. Indian exports to China have grown by a much more modest 4.49%
China has also managed to surpass India in other areas of influence in Asia.
Beijing has deepened and expanded its military alliance with India’s arch-enemy, Pakistan.
With the world’s two fastest growing economies, China and India are also ensnared in fierce competition for limited energy resources to fuel growth.
On almost all counts, the two Asian heavyweights clash or compete and they are vulnerable to any deterioration in relations.
They hold different positions on foreign affairs, have contrasting world views, clashing political systems and naturally competitive geostrategic interests.
India is the world’s largest democracy, with a service sector- driven economy, pluralism, government transparency and the rule of law. China depends on the authoritarian leadership of its Communist party and a growing industrial manufacturing base.
Their competition may determine the history of the 21st century.
Mohan Malik, an Asian expert with the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, tried to describe that antagonism when he wrote, “Just as the Indian subcontinental plate constantly rubs and pushes against the Eurasian tectonic plate and causes friction and volatility in the entire Himalayan mountain range, India’s relations with China also remain volatile and friction-ridden because of past experience, war, territorial disputes, unparallel interests, conflicting world views and divergent geopolitical interests.”
Pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com
