It is not very often in India, that comes across a book about China that goes beyond the traditional subject of India-China relations. Jagannath P. Panda’s book China’s Path to Power: Party, Military and the Politics of State Transition does exactly that.
China’s moves concerning Kashmir evoke apprehension regarding retrogressive changes in its Kashmir policy, designed to give it a hold over India. The best case scenario for China is that the Kashmir issue is never resolved; and if this issue inches towards any kind of resolution, that China should be considered a party to the Kashmir dispute.
Since this is the first time that a Han Chinese citizen has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-government stand, Beijing’s nervousness is understandable.
Though we hear a lot about Islam phobia and xenophobia in popular and political parlance in America, the fact remains that the us has a long and rich tradition of critical study and independent thinking. American foreign policy discourse does not constitute any exception to this tradition. The legendry thinker Noam Chomsky has constantly been questioning motives of American foreign policy and indicting it for many misdemeanors, which, he claims, has committed in the name of containment of communists or war on terror.
The various diplomatic rows and even the border problem are symptoms of the larger problems that exist between India and China – the competition for status, influence and power.
The participation of the PLA Navy in escort missions in foreign waters is a radical departure from the historical point of view because this is the first time that the PLA Navy is carrying out such tasks not in national waters.
The year 2009 has seen the Chinese PLA undertake several military exercises, drills and war games to enhance battle effectiveness as well as promote trust among neighbours.
In a conference on socio-economic development in Kamchatka Kray in 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that if Russia does not step up the level of activity of its work in the Russian Far East (RFE), it may risk losing territory. The tone of his remarks was ‘unprecedented’ and reminiscent of former President Vladimir Putin’s even more direct and straightforward warning, who observed in 2000 that “if the authorities failed to develop the region, even the indigenous Russian population will mainly be speaking Japanese, Korean and Chinese in a few decades.”
Revisiting China’s Kashmir Policy
China’s moves concerning Kashmir evoke apprehension regarding retrogressive changes in its Kashmir policy, designed to give it a hold over India. The best case scenario for China is that the Kashmir issue is never resolved; and if this issue inches towards any kind of resolution, that China should be considered a party to the Kashmir dispute.