Bharat Rakshak

Southeast Asian leaders are expected to lay out a vision for closer cooperation with India on security and the economy at a high-level gathering in New Delhi at a time of tension with China in the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea.

The meeting is a ceremonial summit to mark 20 years of cooperation with India and will not include detailed negotiations on regional issues, India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told Reuters.

But ministry officials said the leaders would also produce a statement which is expected to reiterate a commitment to freedom of navigation, a hot issue because of territorial conflicts in the South China Sea.

Some ASEAN countries contest claims by China in the waters, making it the biggest potential flashpoint in the region. The United States has called for calm, but some are also looking to India, the other regional heavyweight, to get involved.

"They want India to play a larger role. Those concerns are only increasing given the uncertain situation that is emerging," said C. Raja Mohan, a strategic affairs expert at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank.

For India, improved relations with Southeast Asia will give it entry into one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the world and a source of raw materials needed for its own growth.

Poor there are poor transport links between India and the nations to its southeast, and constraints like India's tiny diplomatic corps - similar in size to New Zealand's - mean India trails China in relations with the region.

Trade between India and the 10-member ASEAN was up to $80 billion last year compared with $47 billion in 2008. An agreement on free trade in services and investment could be signed at the New Delhi meeting.

But India's role in the region is dwarfed by that of China, which enjoyed trade worth a record $363 billion with ASEAN countries in 2011 in an already established free trade area.

"What we need is far greater connectivity," Khurshid said in an interview with Reuters, mentioning roads, railways and flights as areas needing work. He described a 10-year plan to double the number of diplomats to reflect India's global ambitions.

"RESPECT FOR LAW OF SEA"

The prime ministers of Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam, the presidents of Myanmar, Laos and Indonesia, and the vice president of the Philippines are scheduled to attend the summit along with the sultan of Brunei.

India walks a delicate line to balance its increasingly close partnership with Washington as President Barack Obama steps up the U.S. presence in Asian, and the reality of living next door to China, Asia's fastest-growing superpower.

Khurshid played down the possibility of any tension with China and reiterated that India had no territorial claims in the South China Sea.

"I don't think this is something that will reach hostility or conflict, there are differences obviously - China has a very clear perception about its sovereignty and it also has a very clear idea of how it wants to resolve these issues.

"It's not something that cannot be resolved, it is certainly not something in which we are directly involved, we've said categorically that there should be compliance and respect for the law of the sea."

Flow Chart I: Alternative Scenarios
Driver 1: Chinese Regime Stability and Nationalism
Driver 2: Tibet Factor
Driver 3: Internal Developments in Arunachal Pradesh
Alternative Scenarios 2032 on China’s Posture in Arunachal Pradesh

India can use the vibrant civil society network spanning Southeast Asia to highlight the shared concerns of rural riparian communities and engage China in a sub-regional dialogue to resolve trans-boundary water issues, Nimmi Kurian, Associate Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, says.

Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a national seminar organised by the C. Achutha Menon Study Centre and Library here, she said the subtle shifts in China’s public diplomacy on sharing the Mekong waters with five Southeast Asian countries revealed a greater degree of responsiveness to stakeholder concerns.

These recent shifts hold out the promise of nudging China towards water resource management norms that were beneficial for downstream communities, she said, underlining the need for a flexible approach beyond formal instruments.

Climate change

“Climate change is one issue that can be used to start a sub-regional dialogue on trans-boundary water governance,” she said.

“China’s growing demand for water and energy has resulted in a national campaign to develop and augment the country’s huge hydropower capacity. A series of dams have been planned on major international rivers such as the Salween, the Mekong and the Yarlung-Tsangpo. Many of these rivers flow into some of the most populous regions in South and Southeast Asia. The manner in which these waters are used upstream will impinge on the quality and quantity of the flows received below,” she said.

“Geographically, China has the advantage of being an upper riparian nation and hence never felt the need to address the concerns and challenges faced by downstream regions. Hence the need for public diplomacy involving the media, academia and civil society groups.”

Ms. Kurian, who is part of the BCIM Forum, a sub-regional Track-II initiative of research institutes from Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar to study the processes of marginalisation on the peripheries and suggest actionable and alternate imaginaries, said concerns over water-resource scarcity could raise the potential for conflict and pose threats to peace and stability in the region.

“A sub-regional dialogue involving India, China and other countries in South and Southeast Asia should address the benefits accruing from sharing international river basins. Such a platform would create entry points for diverse stakeholders to come together,” she said.

China launched global positioning services in the Asia-Pacific from its Beidou satellite network on Thursday, saying it aimed to win up to 20 per cent of global market share by 2015.

The state-run Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) would initially provide positioning, navigation, timing and short-message services in China and the Asia-Pacific region, it said on its official website, www.beidou.gov.cn.

The Beidou, or Compass, system was compatible with other global positioning systems, said Beidou spokesman Ran Chengqi, who also heads the China Satellite Navigation Office.

State media quoted Ran as saying the system could provide positioning accuracy of 10 metres, velocity accuracy of 0.2 metres per second and one-way timing accuracy of 50 nanoseconds.

“We hope industries based on the Beidou Navigation Satellite System will hold 15 to 20 per cent of the market share by 2015,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

The agency quoted unidentified sources as saying China’s market for navigation services was worth some 120 billion yuan (19.2 billion dollars) this year.

The Beidou network is designed to provide both open and authorized global navigation services worldwide by 2020 and will eventually use 35 satellites.

China launched the first satellite for the system in 2000, assembling an initial network of four satellites in trial use for traffic control, weather forecasting and disaster relief since 2003.

It started launching new satellites for the system in 2007, and now has 16 in operation.

Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma will visit China next month to discuss plans for a larger joint military exercise.

The decision received political clearance during a meeting between Defence Minister A.K. Antony and his outgoing Chinese counterpart Gen Liang Guanglie in September.

Mr. Sharma would head a tri-service delegation on January 14-15 as part of the 5th Annual Defence Dialogue, said government sources. He would also look at a proposal for joint maritime search and rescue exercises between the navies and strengthening the collaboration in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden.

The two countries held a joint army exercise in 2007 after a planning process that lasted three years with the aim of making the ‘Hand-in-Hand’ exercise a regular feature.

The second such exercise was held the next year, but the next edition could not be staged as India put on hold contacts between high-ranking defence personnel after an incident involving denial of visa to the Northern Army Commander, who was to lead a military delegation to China.

But with increased contacts and confidence built by the annual defence dialogue, the sources expect the next army-level joint exercise to be held by next year.

Visa issue

While the two sides have been regularly holding flag meetings on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), visa related hiccups have tended to overshadow as well as inhibit closer defence ties. China still refuses visas to Army officers from Arunachal Pradesh.

The recently concluded Indo-ASEAN Summit in New Delhi marked the most notable success of Indian foreign policy over the past two decades.

Sadly, no recognition is being accorded to the visionary role of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who realised the crucial importance of greater economic cooperation and integration of a liberalised Indian economy, with the dynamic economies of Japan, South Korea and India’s South-East Asian neighbours, who are all now members of the ASEAN regional grouping.

Rao’s visionary policies have been carried forward by successor Governments, headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

It has also to be acknowledged that Rao’s efforts were successful, largely because of the recognition of Singapore’s elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew and his successor, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong that an economically vibrant India would have an important role in the maintenance of peace and security in ASEAN’s neighbourhood, extending from the Indian Ocean to the shores of South China Sea.

STAND VIS-À-VIS CHINA

India’s dialogue with ASEAN is not limited to annual Summits. There are now annual meetings between the Defence Ministers of ASEAN on the one hand and its partners such as China, Japan, South Korea and India, on the other.

ASEAN is the driving force behind the East Asian summit, which brings together its ten members with the US, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

India has consciously taken a low-key posture in ASEAN forums, stressing the need for ASEAN to be the driving force for consensual efforts to build peace, security and progress across the entire Indo-Pacific Region.

Interestingly, the Vision Statement issued at the New Delhi Summit alludes to ASEAN appreciation for “India’s role in peace and stability”. India, in turn, recognises “ASEAN’s centrality” in “economic structures and institutions currently emerging in the region”.

Whether ASEAN can retain its traditional unity in dealing with external challenges, in the face of an assertive and domineering China, however, remains to be seen.

While attention is focused on India’s trade relations with China and the US, what is often overlooked is that India’s trade with ASEAN, which reached an estimated $79 billion last year and is scheduled to reach $100 billion by 2015, has increased ten times over the past decade. Investment flows in the same period amounted to $43 billion. Moreover, with a virtual “open skies” policy governing air travel, more and more Indians now visit ASEAN countries, notably Thailand and Singapore.

While economic integration with Japan, South Korea and ASEAN has been mutually beneficial, India would do well to tread cautiously on its endorsement of the China-backed proposal for a “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.”

This proposal seeks to convert India’s entire eastern neighbourhood, including China, into a free trade and investment area. Indian industry is already reeling under the pressure of imports from China. There is a total absence of transparency in China’s fiscal and economic policies and the obvious subsidies to its exports. Further opening of the Indian economy to Chinese goods and services must be undertaken only when it includes measures that safeguard Indian industry, particularly in key areas such as power, communications, electronics and other employment-oriented areas.

Given its strategic partnership with ASEAN, India can no longer perpetually sit on the fence, on emerging tensions between ASEAN countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines on the one hand and China, on the other.

China appears ready to use force to enforce its territorial claims, ignoring the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas, on its maritime frontiers with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. China is also becoming more rigid on its border claims on the entire State of Arunachal Pradesh and in Ladakh.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung noted: “I hope India fully supports ASEAN in the full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and the six point principles on South China Sea…”

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid virtually rejected this appeal asserting: “Sometimes doing nothing about conflict is about not doing something”. This may sound glib, but it wins us no friends and is a recipe for appeasing a China that supplies nuclear weapons wherewithal to Pakistan and seeks to undermine Indian influence across its Indian Ocean neighbourhood.

SOFT POWER

Very little has been done to utilise our “soft power” through the promotion of the ancient Buddhist links between India and its eastern neighbourhood. There are between 150-190 million Buddhists in South-East Asia, with an estimated 134 million Theravada Buddhists in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia.

While the Union Government is developing the Nalanda University, the Madhya Pradesh Government has undertaken a commendable initiative, establishing an International University for Buddhist-Indic Studies in Sanchi.

It is imperative that New Delhi develops a comprehensive scheme for developing and linking the sites of Buddhist heritage across Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and UP into a global hub for Buddhist tourism and studies.

The scheme should include the development of international airport facilities in Patna and Bhopal, together with six lane highways linking Buddhist sites and a range of hotels, rest houses and other facilities.

A comprehensive proposal on these lines can perhaps be put forward at the next ASEAN and East Asian Summits, by the Prime Minister.

India and China will seek to expand areas of bilateral dialogue when they open official engagements in the New Year on January 10 with a meeting between National Security Adviser (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon and State Counsellor Dai Bingguo.

Mr. Dai, a high-ranking Chinese official, is Mr. Menon’s counterpart in talks on the boundary dispute. It is expected to be Mr. Dai’s last high-level official meeting with the Indian leadership before he lays down office in March.

Beijing and New Delhi have come away satisfied with the outcome of their interaction on regional issues and are now keen to extend it into new areas. “Last year, we extended our dialogue to Africa and West Asia. They were open and candid. This augurs well for future interactions,” said an official.

Both sides will now hold talks on Central Asia, a discussion that was scheduled last year but could not take place. More important, they intend holding talks on maritime security at a time when mainstream western commentary seems to hold Beijing culpable for disputes over territorial and maritime sovereignty in South China Sea.

The intention during the maritime dialogue will be to avoid narrowing down discussions to security issues and instead cover areas outside the ambit of the usual exchanges on maritime security to include shipping costs and transportation, issues on which both countries feel the playing field is tilted against emerging countries. The year will see both sides meeting again to discuss Africa and West Asia as well.

On the defence side, India and China seem to have got over the pause in exchanges after Beijing denied a visa to a high-ranking Indian Army Commander. Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma’s visit to Beijing towards the middle of the month is likely to pave the way for a large Army-level joint exercise, most probably before the year is out. The Defence Secretary’s visit for the annual defence dialogue is likely to result in Defence Minister A.K. Antony going to Beijing after the leadership transition takes place. As it is, Mr. Sharma will probably be the first Indian official to make contact with the People’s Liberation Army’s new Deputy Chief of General Staff designated to meet high-level officials from overseas.

Though Pakistan and the PRC had shared formal diplomatic relations since 1950, the
relationship only truly took on coherence midway through 1962. At this time, with a view toward
negotiating the shared border and therein dealing a blow to their mutual Indian enemy, Chinese
and Pakistani officials began regular contact, eventually leading to a border settlement in early
1963. Throughout their exchanges, Chinese leaders regularly deployed the language of Third
World revolution, decrying the hegemony of the two superpowers, and striving to situate the
PRC at the head of world revolution. Though the revolutionary rhetoric Chinese leaders
summoned was often sanitized of its typical socialist jargon for the benefit of non-communist
Pakistan, Pakistani leaders and officials welcomed the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, and antireactionary thrust of Beijing’s words. Pakistan was particularly responsive to Chinese verbal
attacks on the Americans, who had dramatically stepped up aid to India after 1959, and the
Soviets, who themselves had been cozying up to India by the late 1950s. As such, SinoPakistani exchanges proved a forum in which the PRC could articulate the revolutionary foreign
policy trajectory it sought after 1962.Though, by late 1962, the PRC was eager to support national liberation movements
across the globe, it was unwilling to be pushed into backing Kashmir. By November 1963,
however, Ayub’s government was “pleading for Chinese moral support” for the Kashmir
struggle. Candidly portraying China’s concerns, Zhou responded by saying that at best the
PRC could offer only an “abstract” statement of support. Anything more, Zhou said, would
provoke India to make similar claims in Tibet. Notwithstanding this concern, after buying time
until Sino-Indian tensions had cooled, by early 1964 the PRC was ready to add Kashmir to its list
of Third World national liberation causes.In a March 1962 meeting, Ambassador Rashidi told Zhou Enlai that a strong China llows Pakistan to feel a sense of “security, liberty, [and] honor.”
A few months later, he told Mao that U.S. aid reduces Pakistan to “begging,” whereas China was the “shining light of all oppressed peoples and young nations.” Identifying the PRC’s national development as a useful model for all Thrd World countries, Rashidi called Mao the “doctor that has cured China’s
illnesses.” It was in Pakistan’s interest for the PRC to grow strong, he went on, as this would
defend Asia against imperialist and colonial forces, and would help “lift” all Asian countries out
of dependency on U.S. aid. A powerful PRC would ensure that the U.S. would “not dare”
encroach on Pakistan’s internal affairs. Continuing this argument for China’s benevolence in the
face of superpower aggression, in a July 1964 statement Ayub Khan argued that the U.S. was
lacking in “moral character” and he questioned why developing countries would want to rely on

A delegation of Tibetan Parliament Members from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday urged the Indian government to reconsider its policy towards China.

At a press conference here, six Tibetan MPs said the time had come for the Government of India to consider whether it wanted to continue the policy it had adopted with regard to China. They said the situation inside Tibet had turned from bad to worse and 95 Tiebetans had self-immolated themselves since February 2009 due to the suppressive policies of the Chinese government.

They said that in a bid to inform people about the crisis in Tibet, the MPs had kick-started a month-long solidarity campaign on January 1. The “Solidarity with Tibet” campaign began in Bangalore and would end in Delhi. As part of it, the MPs called on Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and leaders of the Telugu Desam and BJP. Several Tibetan students are expected to participate in a rally to be organised near Indira Park on Thursday.

NightWatch For the night of 9 January 2013 Japan-China: Bloomberg has published an excellent report that describes the economic consequences of Japan's dispute with China over ownership of the Senkaku Islands. No other news outlet has published a comparably insightful and detailed account. The first point the journalists made is that trade relations between China and Japan multiply the costs of a territorial dispute. Japan's trade with China is valued at more than $300 billion per year, which is potentially at risk. A Chinese boycott of Japanese imports would hurt China but might already have resulted in a reduction of GDP, according to Bloomberg citing JPMorgan Chase, because of reduced Chinese purchases of Japanese goods. Ripple effects in China from boycotts of Japanese manufactures put at risk the jobs of millions of Chinese who work in Japanese industries in China. Japanese auto sales declined. Air travel cancellations increased in both countries. One Japanese department store retailer closed 60 of 169 stores because of anti-Japanese vandalism and threats. Comment: The key point is that global economic integration magnifies the consequences of international disputes. Interdependency means both sides seriously suffer economically, although security incidents result in no casualties. Japan might have sustained a .5 per cent decline in GDP in the last quarter of 2012, essentially because of Chinese hostile, nationalistic responses to the islands dispute. Both sides got hurt, but China can absorb the consequences more than Japan. Another key point is that the dispute shows how the Chinese fight in every kind of battle space - at sea, in the air, on the land, in cyber space, in international political space and in economic space. Total warfare means total to the Chinese. They are experimenting with that in the Senkakus dispute. {India simply lacks this approach}

The islands offer the prospect of rich fishing grounds, potential oil reserves and a strategic military outpost in the sea between China, Japan and Taiwan. That’s overshadowed economic ties that Jesper Koll, head of equity research at JPMorgan in Tokyo, called “a match made in heaven.”
“Japan has intellectual property, brands and capital, while China has people, markets and purchasing power,” said Koll, in an interview.

Two days before the election, China sent an 11-page report to the United Nations arguing that the geology of the continental shelf makes the islands a natural part of China.

They{the islands of Senkaku} were largely ignored from the end of World War II until 1969, when a United Nations commission said the surrounding seabed may be “extremely rich” in oil. That brought sovereignty claims in the following years by China, Japan and Taiwan.
“As existing resources are exhausted, the importance of oil and gas resources in the South China Sea will increase and that’s one of the key reasons why this issue is not going away,” said Hao Hong, managing director of research at Bank of Communications Co., China’s fifth-largest lender by assets. China is “stronger than Japan militarily and economically.”

“Japan is always a convenient target for the Chinese government to use to divert domestic anger,” Ding Xueliang, a professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who teaches contemporary Chinese politics, said. “Compared to the political values, the trade values with Japan are secondary.”

China would be willing to accept a 30 percent reduction in trade with Japan before it would back down, whereas Japan’s pain threshold is about 20 percent, Ding estimated.

“Japanese investors will accelerate their strategy of diversifying investments to the rest of Asia,” said Tao Dong, head of Asia economics excluding Japan at Credit Suisse Group AG in Hong Kong. “We see increased cases of Japanese investment in Vietnam and the Philippines and there’s lots more to come.”

Christopher Sidor wrote: China is stronger than Japan militarily and economically? Boss whatever, this guy Hao Hong is smoking, I want it.
China is a pgymy in East Asia. If it believes that it can overcome Japan or if PLAN/PLAAF believe that it can prevail over Japanese SDF then they have something coming. And I am not even involving USA in the fight.

mahadevbhu wrote:

Christopher Sidor wrote: China is stronger than Japan militarily and economically? Boss whatever, this guy Hao Hong is smoking, I want it.
China is a pgymy in East Asia. If it believes that it can overcome Japan or if PLAN/PLAAF believe that it can prevail over Japanese SDF then they have something coming. And I am not even involving USA in the fight.

Saar,.....some of us humble people can also wonder what you have lit up?
China , in all probability IS stronger than Korea, Japan, US forces INDIVIDUALLY . Absolutely. The numbers bear that. The training may be suspect, but absolutely, navy wise, air force wise (they have the same flankers that we do ) and of course, army wise, they're pretty good.

Sure, if the Ring of fire countries gang up on China, then they re nothing. But, INDIVIDUALLY, one on one, Mano a mano...I would venture to say that China forces > JSDF or Korea Army or Taiwain or whoever else.

Acharya wrote:Now even just a war of words in new report is making the economy suffer among the east asian nations tell us how fragile these economies are faced with war threats.

After the Cabinet was formed on Dec. 26, Abe sent his deputy, Taro Aso, a former prime minister now in charge of the finance ministry, to Myanmar.

Many in Japan felt little surprise over why the first trip for a prominent leader of a newly established government should be to a relatively small country like Myanmar. The explanation was that it was part of the new foreign policy that focuses on a stronge

Back in Myanmar, while promoting bilateral ties was Japan's top priority, there was also a hidden agenda. China has made inroads into Myanmar, both in political influence and economic domination.

Undoubtedly, Aso's trip to Naypyidaw could be interpreted as Japan's move to counteract the Chinese impact in this country, and the region at large.

Tumba wrote:
.. your humble opinion is ****** bullshit ... China can not prevail above Korean Peninsular or Japan ... a simple current affairs follower can understands it... dont even want to put facts ... this whole line was stupid

mahadevbhu wrote:

Tumba wrote:
.. your humble opinion is ****** bullshit ... China can not prevail above Korean Peninsular or Japan ... a simple current affairs follower can understands it... dont even want to put facts ... this whole line was stupid

1. You're rude.
2. Whatever you mean to say, and whatever your analysis is, this is in line with what I understand from my readings
http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp

A Chinese expert has advised the government to increase supervision on its border with India after New Delhi's decision to form a new mountain strike corps for the 3,380km-long border that the two countries share in total.

Reacting to a news report in The Times of India, Fu Xiaoqiang, researcher from the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said, "China should strengthen its supervision and control over the border area with India."

The formation of a new corps shows India sees China as its military competitor, Fu was quoted by Beijing-based newspaper the Global Times.

The TOI report said that the new corps, having around 40,000 soldiers, will be formed during India's 12th Five-Year Plan from 2012 to 2017, at an estimated cost of 810 billion rupees ($14.9 billion). The idea is to build the capability of launching counter-offensives into the Tibet Autonomous Region against potential "Chinese attacks."

However, Fu felt the Indian proposal has little relation to a military exercise carried out by the Chinese air force over the Tibet Autonomous Region in December. It is part of India's overall plan to strengthen its military power along its border with China, he said.

mahadevbhu wrote:

Christopher Sidor wrote: China is stronger than Japan militarily and economically? Boss whatever, this guy Hao Hong is smoking, I want it.
China is a pgymy in East Asia. If it believes that it can overcome Japan or if PLAN/PLAAF believe that it can prevail over Japanese SDF then they have something coming. And I am not even involving USA in the fight.

Saar,.....some of us humble people can also wonder what you have lit up?
China , in all probability IS stronger than Korea, Japan, US forces INDIVIDUALLY . Absolutely. The numbers bear that. The training may be suspect, but absolutely, navy wise, air force wise (they have the same flankers that we do ) and of course, army wise, they're pretty good.

Sure, if the Ring of fire countries gang up on China, then they re nothing. But, INDIVIDUALLY, one on one, Mano a mano...I would venture to say that China forces > JSDF or Korea Army or Taiwain or whoever else.

SSridhar wrote:Chinese analyst says that PRC must increase its forces on India border

A Chinese expert has advised the government to increase supervision on its border with India after New Delhi's decision to form a new mountain strike corps for the 3,380km-long border that the two countries share in total.

abhishek_sharma wrote:Crux of Asia: China, India, and the Emerging Global Order: edited by Ashley Tellis and Sean Mirski

Describing the last year as among the least problematic in the history of India-China relations, the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) official newspaper has said in an editorial that ties with India had now turned the corner with “new features” emerging in the relationship, marked by a shift in focus from the boundary question to trade.

The unsigned editorial in the People’s Daily , which reflects the views of the top leadership, called for both countries to “grasp each other’s strategic intent” to ensure that their “growing international influence” was mutually “reinforcing,” rather than a source of rivalry.

Unsigned editorials in the newspaper are widely seen as being endorsed by the CPC’s top leadership and as the most authoritative reflections of the party’s views.

The editorial, the first prominent commentary in the paper on relations with India following last year’s leadership transition in the CPC, closely echoed the message conveyed by new General Secretary Xi Jinping in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week.

“Some new features of the relationship are now emerging,” the editorial, published on Tuesday, said. “The border issue has been controlled effectively. Technical frictions and some worries about the trade imbalance are emerging … while both countries’ international influences are growing.”

“But the problems in trade cooperation are fundamentally different from the border dispute,” the editorial noted. “The former one shows that the relationship is deepening and developing, and becoming more normal … The smooth development of trade relations will increase mutual trust and is conducive to the successful negotiation of the border issue.”

Mr. Xi, who took over following November’s Party Congress and will succeed Hu Jintao as President in March, said in the letter to Dr. Singh that China “will, as it has been doing, pay great importance to developing relations with India and expects to carry out close cooperation with India to create a brighter future of their bilateral relations.”

With the new focus of ties evolving away from bilateral issues, the editorial said both countries now needed to focus on “grasping each other’s strategic intent” to avoid a regional rivalry.

“Both China and India are big powers in this region, and have their own geopolitical interests when promoting relationships with surrounding countries. But as long as such consideration is aimed at the lasting peace of the Asian region, not taking other regional powers as rivals ... it will definitely have a positive spillover effect,” the newspaper said.

“The reinforcement of both countries’ regional and international influences,” it added, “doesn’t mean the increase of frictions between the two countries.”

Curiously, the government-run China Daily , a less influential English-language daily, published a similar editorial a day later, on Wednesday, suggesting the new leadership was looking to convey a signal on its positions with regard to India in the wake of the transition.

The editorial said the recently concluded defence dialogue and the visit of State Councillor Dai Bingguo to New Delhi last week were “positive signals” in the New Year.

Hawkish Japanese premier Shinzo Abe held out an olive branch to China on Tuesday, sending a letter to Beijing's leader-in-waiting to be hand delivered by a coalition ally.

The move comes after months of diplomatic tussles between China and Japan over the sovereignty of a disputed island chain in the East China Sea that have seen repeated maritime encounters.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of the New Komeito party, was expected to stay in Beijing for four days, during which time he would meet China's incoming president, Xi Jinping, and hand over a letter from Abe, local media reported.

"Japan-China relations have been faced with various kinds of friction, and political dialogue has not been held for a long time," Yamaguchi told reporters ahead of his departure.

"I would like to make a step toward opening the door to normalising our relations," he said.

But Yamaguchi, who has no official government role, said Tokyo has no plan to compromise over the island row.

"Our stance is that no territorial problem exists. That's a shared recognition among the government and coalition."

abhishek_sharma wrote:Wakhan Corridor: Stranded on the Roof of the World

The two powers {the British and Russian Empires} created it, through a series of treaties between 1873 and 1895, as a buffer zone—a sort of geographical shock absorber—preventing tsarist Russia from touching British India. In previous centuries the area was part of the Silk Road connecting China and points west, the route of armies and explorers and missionaries. Marco Polo passed through in the late 1200s.

China’s new leader Xi Jinping on Friday called on China and Japan to address their disputes over East China Sea islands “in a timely manner”, in an indication that both governments were looking to calm tensions that have, in recent weeks, strained relations between the two countries.

In the most significant high-level contact between both governments following the changes in leadership that brought Mr. Xi and new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to power against the backdrop of the dispute, the Communist Party of China (CPC) General Secretary met with Natsuo Yamaguchi, who heads the New Komeito Party, here on Friday. The New Komeito is the smaller of the two parties in the coalition led by Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which came to power in December.

Mr. Yamaguchi is the first top leader from the new Japanese government to visit China following the tensions over the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islands that have strained ties in recent months, after Japan announced a plan to purchase some of the islands from their private owner. China responded angrily to the move, stepping up patrols in the waters off the disputed islands. Both countries have recently even scrambled fighters after aircraft entered the airspace above the islands to enforce their claims, sparking concerns of conflict.

Mr. Xi, who took over as the head of the CPC in November and will succeed Hu Jintao as President in March, told Mr. Yamaguchi in Friday's meeting that China’s position was “consistent and clear”.

While he called on Japan “to respect history as well as reality”, he also pushed for “joint efforts... to seek effective methods for appropriately controlling and resolving problems through dialogue and consultation”, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In a further indication that both governments might look to take steps to tone down tensions amid a climate of rising nationalism – State media outlets in China and top People’s Liberation Army officers have in recent days made comments suggesting armed conflict was not off the table – Mr. Abe sent a letter to Mr. Xi.

Delivered by Mr. Yamaguchi, the letter called for both countries to have a “shared responsibility” for peace and requested a summit meeting between the two new leaders, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

“I will seriously consider a high-level dialogue,” the newspaper quoted Mr. Xi as saying in response to the letter at Friday’s meeting. “To do so,” he added, “arranging the proper environment is of vital importance”.

A commentary published after Friday's meeting by the official Xinhua news agency called on both countries to solve their disputes through dialogue and consultation, in a marked change in tone from recent commentaries in State media pushing a hard-line stance.

"A retrospective of the Sino-Japan relationship shows that when there is peace between the two countries, both benefit and when there is conflict, both suffer," the commentary said. "Although the ice between China and Japan is thick, it can be melted by sincere dialogue."

''America is the global tiger and Japan is Asia's wolf and both are now madly biting China,'' Colonel Liu said. ''Of all the animals, Chinese people hate the wolf the most.''

China was a peaceful nation but it would fight to the death if seriously attacked, he said.

Both sides and the US have in recent days traded strident warnings over alleged territorial incursions, while holding out hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough. Diplomats privately warn of a growing risk of accident or miscalculation.

Asked about the People's Liberation Army fighting capability, Colonel Liu referred to the department that houses China's strategic missile and nuclear arsenal.

He raised a hypothetical scenario that he said would justify a nuclear attack, while clarifying that he was not calling upon China to take such measures.

''If this Japanese wolf again attacks America's Pearl Harbour or Australia's Darwin, how do you know it wouldn't receive another nuclear bomb?'' Colonel Liu said. ''The world would hail if Japan receives such a blow.

A brief report by the official Xinhua news agency said the military carried out a "land-based mid-course missile interception test within its territory". "The test has reached the pre-set goal," the report quoted an unnamed Defence Ministry official as saying. "The test is defensive in nature and targets no other country." It did not specify whether any missile or object had been destroyed in the test. "Although no other detailed information about the test was released from the military authorities, weapon system experts said such a test could build shield for China's air defenses by intercepting incoming warheads such as ballistic missiles in space," the report added.
People's Liberation Army officials and documents in recent years have said developing anti-missile technology is one focus of defense spending, which has grown by double-digits over many years.
The latest flexing of China's maturing military hardware comes as Beijing is involved in increasingly bitter territorial disputes in the East China Sea with Japan and in the South China Sea with several Southeast Asian nations. Beijing says its military spending is for defensive purposes and the modernization of outdated forces.

Jhujar wrote:China Carries Out Anti-Missile Test
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/01/ ... .html?_r=0

A brief report by the official Xinhua news agency said the military carried out a "land-based mid-course missile interception test within its territory".

SSridhar wrote:
quote="Jhujar"China Carries Out Anti-Missile Test
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/01/ ... .html?_r=0

A brief report by the official Xinhua news agency said the military carried out a "land-based mid-course missile interception test within its territory". /quote

What 'within its territory' ? Space belongs to the entire humanity. Is China now claiming that space above its land mass is its own ?

China wants India [ Images ] to put behind the 1962 war as an ‘unfortunate’ thing of the past. The two countries should strengthen their military ties and formalise a border management pact under which their troops will not fire at each other, believes China's defence ministry.The Chinese assessment was conveyed to the Indian defence ministry’s team which visited Beijing [ Images ] on January 14 and 15 for the third round of the Annual Defence Dialogue between the two countries.During the meeting with the Indian team led by Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma, the Chinese side asked India to forget the 1962 war as an ‘unfortunate’ thing of the past.
The Chinese delegation said it looked forward to better relations between the two countries, highly-placed defence sources said on Friday.India had suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1962 war.
The Chinese side was ‘unusually warm’ during the third round of talks and wanted a formal border management agreement along the more than 4,000-km-long Line of Actual Control.The Chinese side, the sources said, is expected to send proposals in this regard.Beijing also wants to formalise a mechanism under which there will be no night patrolling by troops from both sides and if they cross each others' path, they will not follow each other, sources said.However, Beijing continued to be in denial mode when the Indian side raised the issue of the presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.India maintains that Chinese troops are found in significant numbers in PoK around the Chinese construction projects in that region.The Chinese side did not raise any ‘negative’ issue, like they have done in the past, when they questioned the statements by services chiefs on China and the media coverage.

Consider Jane Perlez's New York Times story from October 2011:
A rising China with global ambitions is unlikely to supplant the United States in Pakistan, according to Chinese experts on Pakistan, as well as Pakistani and American officials. And while Pakistan’s latest flirtations with Beijing have been received cordially, Pakistani officials have walked away from their junkets with far less in hand than they might have hoped....
China’s core interests lie elsewhere — in its competition with the United States and in East Asia, experts say. China has shown little interest in propping up the troubled Pakistani economy, consistently passing up opportunities to do so. Despite China playing it cool, Pakistan has continued to fall all over itself to attract greater Chinese engagement in their country. Which leads us to today's headline in the New York Times: "Chinese Firm will Run Strategic Pakistani Port." Sounds ominous for U.S. interests... until one reads Declan Walsh's actual story: Pakistan is handing management control of a strategic but commercially troubled deep-sea port to a Chinese company, the information minister confirmed Thursday.... The fate of Gwadar, once billed as Pakistan’s answer to the bustling port city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has been a focus of speculation about China’s military and economic ambitions in South Asia for the past decade. Some American strategists have described it as the westernmost link in the “string of pearls,” a line of China-friendly ports stretching from mainland China to the Persian Gulf, that could ultimately ease expansion by the Chinese Navy in the region. Gwadar is close to the Strait of Hormuz, an important oil-shipping lane.
But other analysts note that Gwadar is many years from reaching its potential, and they suggest that fears of creeping Chinese influence might be overblown. “There may be a strategic dimension to this, where the Chinese want to mark their presence in an important part of the world,” said Hasan Karrar, an assistant professor of Asian history at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, referring to the management transfer at Gwadar. “But I wouldn’t go so far as saying this implies a military projection in the region.”....
Pakistan has failed to build the port or transportation infrastructure needed to develop the port, the property bubble has burst and, according to the port management Web site, the last ship to dock there arrived in November. “The government never built the infrastructure that the port needed — roads, rail or storage depots,” said Khurram Husain, a freelance business journalist. “Why would any shipping company come to the port if it has no service to offer?”
According to reports in the Pakistani news media, the Port of Singapore Authority sought to withdraw from the management contract after the Pakistani government failed to hand over land needed to develop the facility. (emphasis added) This greater Chinese involvement, it should be noted, also comes after Beijing rebuffed Pakistani requests to turn Gwadar into a naval base. So, to sum up: despite Pakistan prostrating itself before China, Beijing has been extremely leery of getting too enmeshed in that country. It has rejected repeated requests for military basing, and only now has a commercial Chinese company agreed to manage a port that appears to be the Pakistani exemplar of "white elephant." So please, no "strong of pearls" posts from the national security blogosphere today. These pearls are about as fake as you can get. Am I missing anything?

The ‘Prime Minister’ of the ‘Tibetan Government in exile’ Lobsang Sangay on Saturday said the success of the Tibetan movement will provide encouragement to democratic and non-violent freedom struggles across the world.

Drawing a contrast

Drawing a contrast with the Syrian rebels who have gained much media, political and military support across the world through a dogged armed resistance against the Bashar al-Assad regime, Dr. Sangay bemoaned the fact that the Tibetans who have waged a non-violent, democratic struggle for over 50 years was not receiving a similar scale of support.

Reiterating that he wanted to solve the problems with China through dialogue, Dr. Sangay, who was appointed ‘Prime Minister’ of the Dharamsala-based organisation, said he will follow a “middle-path”.

“We don’t seek independence or separation. If we are granted genuine autonomy we are ready to live under the People’s Republic of China. We have been reasonable and moderate,” said Dr. Sangay.

He was delivering the First Annual Lecture of the Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents here at the India International Centre on “Democracy in Exile and the Future of Tibet”.

Future of Tibet

Responding to a question on the future of Tibet considering the rising power of China, he said the Tibetan civilization and identity were as old as the Chinese civilization and identity.

“Who would have thought the Soviet Union will collapse and the Berlin Wall will come down? Was the Arab Spring and the release of [Burmese pro-democracy campaigner] Aung San Suu Kyi predicted? With all that is happening in the world, the Tibetan people are also hopeful of things turning around,” Dr. Sangay said.

He also praised the vision of the Dalai Lama in building a democratic movement. “His Holiness was inspired by a visit to the Indian Parliament, in which he saw a person of the stature of Jawaharlal Nehru being questioned. The Tibetan Parliament he envisioned in the 1960s gave representation to all regions, sects and even women. He even ensured that our Constitution had a clause that provided for impeaching him. In 2011, when he said he said he would devolve all his political powers to an elected government, many people raised concerns but he stood firm,” Dr. Sangay said.

He said the ‘Tibetan Government in exile’ was a historical continuity of the rule of the Dalai Lama that began in 1642; that it retained the legitimacy and charisma of the Dalai Lama; and that the legitimacy was enhanced by the fact that it is a “democratically elected government”.