theSun | THURSDAY JUNE 4 2009
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India casts wary eye on China
by Myra MacDonald
WASHINGTON’S focus on
Pakistan and economic depend-
ence on China are forcing India
to reassess its own place in South
Asia, reviving long-standing
fears of strategic encirclement by
its giant northern neighbour.
Analysts say Indian suspi-
cions about China, suppressed
during the boom years by bur-
geoning trade ties, have been
stoked by Chinese involvement
in Pakistan and a sense that
Beijing has replaced India as
the favoured friend of the US in
the region.
“There is a very strong feel-
ing that China is India’s threat
number one,” said Subhash Ka-
pila at the South Asia Analysis
Group, an Indian think-tank.
Under former President
George W. Bush, the US forged
close ties with India culminating
in a deal effectively recognising
its nuclear-armed status.
India and China also made
efforts to mend relations soured
by a border war in 1962.
But with the financial crisis
highlighting US dependence on
Beijing to bankroll its debt, India
is fretting that while it acquired
a friendship, China bought the
US economy.
“During the Bush era, US
policy was seeking to build India
as a counterweight to China,”
Brahma Chellaney, from India’s
Centre for Policy Research, said
at a conference in London. “As
this was going on the Chinese
and US economic ties were get-
ting thicker and thicker.”
Long Pakistan’s closest
ally, China has been steadily
building ties with India’s other
neighbours, supplying weapons
to Sri Lanka and improving its
relationship with Myanmar and
Nepal, all stoking Indian fears of
strategic encirclement.
China has stressed it sees
no competition with India, but
rather that both can benefit from
rising bilateral trade as well as
co-operation on issues where
the two countries share similar
views, including on Doha trade
talks and climate change.
“Neither of the two poses a
threat to the other,” Ma Jiali,
from China Institutes of Contem-
porary International Relations,
told the conference in London.
Until very recently, India
shared that view and set aside
distrust which lingered on
from its defeat by China in the
1962 war. At the same time the
government also played down
alleged incursions along the
disputed border to avoid spoiling
the mood.
“There was this euphoria that
trade is booming,” said Profes-
sor Dibyesh Anand at London’s
University of Westminster.
That mood is now shifting,
with attention turning again
to tensions over the 3,500-km
border, particularly Chinese
claims to the northeastern state
of Arunachal Pradesh.
India’s air force chief said
in May that China presented
a greater threat than Pakistan
because Delhi knew little about
Beijing’s combat capabilities.
“The public mood is very
much that Pakistan is the unre-
formed enemy, China cannot be
trusted,” Anand said.
That traditional distrust of
India’s two main rivals has been
fused together by Washington’s
renewed focus on Pakistan.
President Barack Obama’s
administration is not only pour-
ing money into Pakistan, but
also looking to China to help put
pressure on Islamabad to crack
down on the militants.
As well as supplying weap-
ons to Pakistan, China has been
expanding its economic interests
there, notably through funding
the new Gwadar deep sea port to
give it access to Middle East oil.
“Pakistan’s reliance on both
the US and China for aid and
diplomatic support means that
co-ordinated approaches from
Washington and Beijing provide
the best chance for impacting
Pakistani policies in a way that
encourages regional stability,”
Lisa Curtis, from the Heritage
Foundation think tank, told a
Congressional hearing in Wash-
ington.
11
AT BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE!
India, which broke off peace Pakistan. He said the govern-
talks with Pakistan after last ment should aim to carve out
November’s attack on Mumbai, a long-term foreign policy that
fears it may come under US managed to rise above the public
pressure to reduce tensions so mood.
that Islamabad can focus on With both India and China
fighting its Taliban insurgency. competing overseas for energy
The newly re-elected Con- and other resources, the foreign
gress-led government has yet to policy decisions made by the
spell out how it plans to navigate new government could deter-
a political and economic envi- mine how far Delhi succeeds
ronment which has changed in securing supplies overseas to
radically in recent months. fuel its growing economy.
Anand, who described India “They are rivals for a lot of
as suffering “a schizophrenia energy projects against each
between arrogance and help- other, although on occasions
lessness”, said the country had they have submitted joint bids;
no real reason to feel under siege they have tried to cooperate,”
and should actually welcome said Beijing-based British author
the US asking China to help in Jasper Becker. – Reuters
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Domestic violence not a
personal matter
THE Women’s Centre for Change Penang there were 3,756 cases of domestic violence
(WCC) views with great concern the al- reported to the police. These figures are said
legations made by Indonesian teenager, to only represent the tip of the iceberg.
Manohara Odelia Pinot regarding the vio- WCC views with deep concern the com-
lence she has endured in her marriage to a ments made by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk
Kelantan prince. WCC is glad to see that the Seri Muhyiddin Yassin regarding Manohara’s
Foreign Affairs Ministry has offered to help if allegations. He was reported as saying “...
Manohara files a complaint and we strongly this is more a personal matter” and “... so
encourage her to file a complaint, as well as, we want to leave it as it is”. WCC would
lodge a police report. like to stress that domestic violence is not
Domestic violence is a criminal offence. a personal matter, but is of public concern,
Under the Domestic Violence Act, domestic given that it is a crime.
violence includes causing or threatening to The government is duty bound to inves-
cause physical injury, confining a person, tigate these allegations.
damaging property or forcing a person to
do something she can legally refuse to do. Prema Devaraj
A person found guilty of these acts can be Programme Director
charged under the Penal Code. In 2007, Women’s Centre for Change