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United States succeeds in pitting India against China

By chankaiyee2 on February 23, 2015 • ( 3 )

A signboard is seen from the Indian side of the Indo-China border at Bumla, in Arunachal Pradesh, November 11, 2009.

Some people regard the territorial disputes between India and China as a major issue to exploit in pitting India against China.

In fact, the disputed areas give neither China nor India advantage to attack the other as their geological layout facilitates defence. The two countries deploy heavily armed troops there for defence instead of attack.

When China had improved ties with Russia, Russia used its influence to ease the tension at the Chinese-Indian borders.

Former US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta tried in vain to ask India to join the US in encircling China.

US President Obama seems to have had some diplomatic experience after working as the president for more than six years. He knows that now he has the opportunity to pit India against China.

China’s establishment of the maritime Silk Road aims at safeguarding its trade lifelines through the Indian Ocean. For that it must have some supply bases and even military bases along the Silk Road. That was why it obtained Sri Lanka’s permission for its warships and submarines to use Sri Lankan ports.

China’s rise has long since worried India due to the uncertainly whether China will become an aggressor to dominate the world when it becomes world number one. India regards China’s activities in Sri Lanka as a threat to its national security. It has tried hard to sabotage the economic cooperation between Sri Lanka and China, but as China is willing to offer Sri Lanka very preferential terms, India failed to succeed in severing the ties between China and Sri Lanka.

India urgently needs US help to contain China. Seeing the opportunity to have India as an ally in containing China, Obama promised to provide US aircraft carrier technology for India to contain China in the Indian Ocean. That is something exceptional as no other country has ever been able to obtain such technology from the US.

To please the US, India has begun to challenge China. Its Prime Minister Modi visited a disputed border region and promised to make substantial investment to develop the region. Reuters published a report yesterday on China’s response. The following is the full text of the report:

China protests at Indian PM’s visit to disputed border region

China has lodged an official protest against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to a border region claimed by both countries.

China disputes the entire territory of the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, calling it south Tibet. Its historic town Tawang, a key site for Tibetan Buddhism, was briefly occupied by Chinese forces during a 1962 war.

“The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’,” a statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website said on Friday, adding that Modi’s visit was “not conducive” to developing bilateral relations.

Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told India’s Ambassador to China Ashok Kantha on Saturday that China was firmly opposed to the visit.

“The Indian side’s insistence on arranging activities by leaders in the disputed region infringes on China’s territorial sovereignty and interests, magnifies the dispute on the border issue, and violates the consensus to appropriately handle the border issue,” a separate ministry statement cited Liu as saying.

Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Friday to inaugurate the opening of a train line and power station. He did not mention China but pledged billions of dollars of investment to develop infrastructure in the region.

“I assure you that you will witness more development in the state in the next five years than it has seen in the last 28 years,” Modi said, addressing a huge crowd.

Faster transport links and exploitation of Arunachal Pradesh’s hydro-electric potential are the keys to fighting poverty and bringing about rapid development in the frontier state, he said.

In January, China objected to statements by Japan’s Foreign Ministry supporting India’s claim to the region.

A visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to India in January was widely seen as a sign Modi is moving closer to the United States, to offset rising Chinese influence in Asia and, in particular, intensifying activity by the Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean.