President Pranab Mukherjee will be paying a visit to China on May 24. This will be his maiden visit to that country as President and the visit is in response to the invitation of Chinese President Xi who had visited India in 2014. Sino-Indian relations have not been smooth ever since the Chinese incursion in our eastern part in 1962. While Chinese troops withdrew voluntarily back to their original places on the other side of the border, yet China started to claim Indian territory especially in Arunachal Pradesh. She has not dropped that claim so far and allows it to remain an irritant in the relations between two neighbouring countries.
The bigger irritant in Sino-Indian relations is China’s unholy alliance with Pakistan to the detriment of our interests. India does not oppose any country having relations worth our adversaries but when those relations undermine our interests, we feel uncomfortable. This is true about Pakistan supporting terrorists and their activities against India. Azhar, the chief of a Pakistan-based terrorist organization called Josh-e-Mohammad, is accused of masterminding the attack on Kashmir Assembly and the recent attack on Pathankot Air Base. JeM has been declared a terrorist organization by the US and India had moved the Security Council to declare Azhar a terrorist for his involvement in clandestine attacks on India establishment. China using veto power as Security Council member stayed this declaration. Prior to it, China had once more opposed India moving a similar proposal before the Security Council. China has been doing so on the behest of Pakistan. This is a clear indication that China is not interested in cooperating with India in meeting the challenge of terrorists. This exposes the claim of China that she is cooperating with world body in meeting the terrorist challenge. It is so amusing that China herself has been faced with religion or ethnicity based terror in its eastern province of Xingjian. Incidentally, both China and Pakistan have double standards of combating terror. For Pakistan, the TTP fighting in Waziristan or KP are terrorists but her terrorists like those from JeM of Azhar in Kashmir are “freedom fighters”. Almost the same is the polity of China. She suppresses the Uighurs ethnic groups as “terrorists” but would not want sanctions imposed against Azhar who led attack on Kashmir Assembly and Pathankot Air Base.
China and India are not only neighbours; they are the giant countries of the Asian Continent. Taking into account the size of their population and land mass and also the historicity of the two nations, it is evident that if they jointly address the problems facing Asiatic countries like poverty, disease, economic recession, terrorism and climate change, there is every possibility that a new Asia will rise and give lead to the world. India values China’s friendship. China has made immense economic progress and India is also moving along same lines. Together they can create lasting impact on world economy. These are the sentiments to which the President has given expression. China and India are conducting trade on large scale and business corporate houses of two countries often meet to expand trade relations.
In final analysis, Beijing has to understand that by opposing India’s bid to get Azhar declared a terrorist by the Security Council, she is identifying herself not an opponent but supporter of terrorism. That is the simple impression which the world body draws from her policy on terrorism. We may remind Beijing that there was a time when China openly told Pakistan to contain terrorist organizations on her soil so that they desist from brainwashing the Uighur boys who come to Pakistan to receive training in terrorism in Pakistani camps. China is a big country and she has to behave like a big and responsible member of world community. She has also to understand that India is an emerging power and enormous market. China has to treat India on the basis of the status of our country. There is no reason why two giant countries of Asia cannot live in mutual trust and coexist in harmony. Chines President will be in India later this summer for Goa meet and Prime Minister Modi will be visiting China soon. In such a scenario where there are multiple opportunities of enhancing relations, it does not behove China to be cheap and intransigent to behave in a scurvy manner at the UN.
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