Neutering & Defanging Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)

[Singha]

Part2 of so sorry series

https://www.facebook.com/indianmilitary ... 816479914/

[AjayKK]

Bhutan and Nepal overshadowed by bellicose India despite the end of China-India standoff
By Wendy Min, Global Times, 2017/8/31 20:23:39
Residents sandwiched between two powers worry India will seek to intensify dominance

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1064166.shtml

Chinese projecting their fears of a resolute India having greater leverage with Nepal and Bhutan, more than what they themselves can think of having?

[Peregrine]

Ahead of Modi's BRICS visit, Chinese media praise Hinduism for preventing spread of radical Islam

Austin Ji :
Herewith the Original Global Times Article by Ding Gang :

Hinduism tied to India’s geopolitical standing - Ding Gang 2017/8/30 18:03:39

When the morning breeze from the river lifted up Shaila's black veil, Shekhar was dumbfounded to see such a pretty face. He continued staring straight at her until the girl noticed the burning stare coming from meters away and swiftly put down her veil.

The 1995 Indian movie Bombay started from this chance encounter. Yet the romantic journey between Shekhar, a journalism student and the son of an orthodox Hindu in southern India, and Muslim girl Shaila eventually involved the bloody clashes between Hindus and Muslims that broke out in Bombay at the end of 1992.

In real life, almost 1,000 people were killed during the riots. In the film, the couple's home is burned down by rioters and their parents lose their lives in the fire.

Audiences at the time were deeply touched by the courage of the director and scriptwriter to display this painful moment in Indian history through such a loving story just three years after the riots. The movie triggered extensive discussions and caused people to reflect on religious divisions.

Since the partition of India in 1947, religious conflicts like the one portrayed in Bombay have continued to produce tragedies in many regions of the country.

When I watched the movie during a trip to India not long ago, a question came to me: Why does it seem that Muslims in India have remained largely apart from the radicalization that has happened to Muslim groups in other parts of the world?

Indian Muslims seldom have extreme organizations compared with groups in many other Asian countries. In the southern part of the Philippines, extremists backed by Islamic State have turned their occupied cities into horrible places. In southern Thailand, terror attacks staged by Muslim extremists take place almost every week.

I believe the answer may lie in the facets of the country's other major religion: Hinduism.

Like many other religions, Hinduism has its extreme side, but for the most part its more moderate side has the strongest influence. Perhaps it is this more moderate influence that has helped establish India's lasting cohesion and is one of the reasons that the country has not separated.

Most tourists to India enjoy traveling to the golden triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, during which time they mostly visit the architecture of the Mughal Empire. Indians often take pride in the Mughal Dynasty, but this period of history was established by Muslims, not Hindus, though there was Hindu influence.

In the long history of India, Hinduism has gone far beyond a religion to become a lifestyle and social institution. Both its extreme and tolerant sides have constituted the foundation for its relationship with Muslims and this dual character is going to exist for a long time.

The result of this relationship has made India a barrier for the spread of radical Islam on the global geopolitical landscape. In Asia as a whole, Islam forms an arc that includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, southern Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Central Asian countries. There are tensions at various degrees at junctions in this arc where it encounters other religions and ethnicity, but a dent exists in the Indian portion of this arc.

The world has taken notice. The lack of Islamic extremists in India has helped determine its role in Asia and has been taken into consideration by the US, Japan, Russia and European countries when it comes to their Asia policies.

In the future, India is sure to continue to stand out in geopolitical significance when it comes to increasing religious and ethnic conflicts around the world.

Where China is concerned, this significance should not be ignored.

The author is a senior editor with the People's Daily, and currently a senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. dinggang@globaltimes.com.cn. Follow him on Twitter @dinggangchina

Cheers

[anupmisra]

Next step (V. 2.0) to pi$$ing off the over-fed, self pleasuring han, I have a suggestion:

As part of the ongoing (and shall I say, demonstratively successful) neutering of the han (V. 1.0), Indians should online publish maps of chini-occupied and chini-influenced lands with their original Sanskrit names. Publish them on those limited number of sites that are still accessible to the han fifty centers (wiki-bhayya comes to mind). That will take the battle to them.

[anupmisra]

Bhutan and Nepal overshadowed by bellicose India despite the end of China-India standoff
By Wendy Min, Global Times, 2017/8/31 20:23:39
Residents sandwiched between two powers worry India will seek to intensify dominance

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1064166.shtml

Chinese projecting their fears of a resolute India having greater leverage with Nepal and Bhutan, more than what they themselves can think of having?

Tacitly, the han have admitted that they lost this round.

[anupmisra]

Herewith the Original Global Times Article by Ding Gang :

Hinduism tied to India’s geopolitical standing - Ding Gang 2017/8/30 18:03:39

Where China is concerned, this significance should not be ignored.

Ding Dong is inadvertently admitting that there is trouble in Xinjiang.

[hnair]

Bhutan and Nepal overshadowed by bellicose India despite the end of China-India standoff
By Wendy Min, Global Times, 2017/8/31 20:23:39
Residents sandwiched between two powers worry India will seek to intensify dominance

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1064166.shtml

Chinese projecting their fears of a resolute India having greater leverage with Nepal and Bhutan, more than what they themselves can think of having?

birathers need to report to kave kamplex and start a new kammenting strategy. Also wake up call to Scandinavian analysts Olaf Biglund and Sven Smalgand....

(why? because of message "Hold on, this is waiting to be approved by The Global Times." )

[Lekhraj]

Ahead of Modi's BRICS visit, Chinese media praise Hinduism for preventing spread of radical Islam

Now this sets my antennas up. What's cooking in Chinese menu.

[pankajs]

Buttering Modi in hopes of winning him over to their side. Perhaps they are hoping that praising Hinduism will get through to his so called *Hindutva* side.

[chola]

Buttering Modi in hopes of winning him over to their side. Perhaps they are hoping that praising Hinduism will get through to his so called *Hindutva* side.

Think of Cheen as the soft fat godfather who once he knows he can't intimidate you, he tries to con you with praises and moolah.

Be on lookout for concessions on trade and OBOR.

Do not fall for his money and guile, confront him with military force and violence. His weakness is his inability to fight as a fat and lazy slug who masturbates too much.

Cheen being strangled by Bollywood starlet:

[JE Menon]

One of the Scandinavians has commented most reasonably, all things considered - though one wonders whether Grobar Times will post a loundeye comment.

Not happening. I was told the comment was awaiting approval, and was visible as such. But now disappeared. They are still waiting for the first comment

[VinodTK]

Narendra Modi Stands Firm As China Stands Down Over Doklam

Having predicted only last week that Doklam would not reach the headlines again anytime soon, it seems arrangements were already underway for a choreographed disengagement over the contested Himalayan plateau. Statements have been issued by both sides making slightly different, but importantly not incompatible, claims and the broad outlines of an agreement seem clear enough. China will continue patrolling the Doklam area while Indian troops have returned to their bases. The road which China intended to build and which caused Indian troops to deploy is only mentioned privately by Indian sources, who say that it will not now be built. China simply doesn't mention it. Other reports suggest China's road building equipment has been withdrawn.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now attend the BRICS summit this coming week in Xiamen, something that had been thought unlikely, perhaps impossible, as long as the standoff continued. China claims that in withdrawing, India has now removed the source of the hostility and corrected its behaviour but China's bellicose rhetoric of last week has almost completely disappeared. Furthermore, for a government ordinarily so jealous of the 'hurt feelings' of its people the fact that India produced nothing remotely approaching an apology is noteworthy.

China Stumbles

Many conclusions can and will be drawn about this incident, but it will be carefully studied across the region and around the world because it has disrupted a pattern. China's habit on border disputes over the past few years has been to talk in a conciliatory manner, smile and offer win-win cooperation to all, while warning that it will not hesitate to defend its core interests. Nevertheless, as they have shown in the South China Sea and despite any promises they make to the contrary, they can be relied on to act decisively to change the facts on the ground, before then treating all protests as mere impertinence.

When there is a confrontation with a powerful rival, for example, the U.S. or Japan, it is invariably treated as the most grievous insult, for which any and all interruptions of trade or diplomatic rebukes are justified. Small powers, however, are simply presented with the sheer scale of China's power and expected to kowtow. Vietnam, for example, was left seething but essentially impotent when China warned of a military response to continued oil drilling in disputed waters. Equally the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, despite his tough guy image, basically admitted there was nothing he could do about what appears to be the seizure of Sandy Cay, another contested islet in the South China Sea.

India Rising

While the Philippines and Vietnam are members of ASEAN, and have both been keen to agree a "Code of Conduct" for dealing with disputes and confrontations in the South China Sea, ASEAN relies on consensus, and because China has friends on the inside, it has successfully prevented a consensus contrary to their interests from emerging. Vietnam, has traditionally been friendly with Russia, but Russia's new friendship with China has left them scrambling to strengthen ties with the U.S., their old enemy. The Philippines, however, has blown hot and cold with the U.S. in recent years. Either way, the Americans have played softly softly over the South China Sea issue in the past, leaving China free to change the facts on the ground without a serious response.

Bhutan, it appears, has better friends, or perhaps allies with more directly compatible interests in resisting Chinese encroachment. Therefore when China tried to build a road in territory Bhutan claims as its own, India stepped in and decisively altered the facts on the ground. Clearly this came as a surprise to China, who nevertheless found that their usual formula of bellicose threats and aggrieved condescension left India unmoved. One claim China repeatedly made stands out: throughout this whole episode, India had patiently and quietly asserted their willingness to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels, while China had publicly demanded that talks could not even commence until India withdrew. It turns out they were talking almost from the start.

Lessons learned?

While things may change the only reasonable conclusion that might be drawn is that India have scored a small, but dramatic victory over China. Their concern was that a road would undermine their strategic advantage in the Doklam theatre, and consequently their ability to defend Bhutan. They have so far prevented the road and forced China to return to the status quo ante. China, for their part, underestimated India and have now cut their losses on a deteriorating situation from which they had little to gain and much to lose. The prospect of Narendra Modi not visiting Xiamen for the BRICS summit might have dealt a death blow to that rickety organisation, and would have meant a serious loss of face for Xi.

For the rest of the world, the key lessons that might be learned are twofold: First of all, behind all the bluster and rhetorical brinkmanship, there are pragmatists in Beijing capable of staging a remarkable recovery from the deeply wounded feelings of the Chinese people. This indicates that for all the careful footsteps diplomats engage in to sooth tensions a better approach is simply to remain quiet but firm.

Secondly, concentrate on the facts on the ground. Talking means not doing and for China it clearly serves as a useful distraction. But as India has shown, if you signal your intentions clearly and follow through without too much fuss China are likely to take you much more seriously in the end. Next week Xiamen will no doubt witness the proof of that in the smiling, confident figure of Narendra Modi, the man who made China step back and say thank you.

[Singha]

[Karthik S]

^ What is that?

[Viv S]

^ What is that?

A man who knows that the truth is out there.

[Prasad]

Remember Indonesia renaming part of the SCS ? Result -

[Philip]

Chinese warships were sent into the IOR to counter any IN attacks against their maritime assets if the Doklam impasse exploded.A DDG,FFG and fleet tanker are parked in the Maldives also to protect the v.unpopular Maldivian dictatorship and army from a people's uprising plus any Indian intervention as we did during Op. Cactus.The Maldives is going to implode v.soon and China wants a mil base here by any means. Watch this space.

[Philip]

Ha!Ha! The Indonesians and Filipinos are taking their cue from BRF but we still dither.Tch,tch.
"with the highest respect".Let's write to the Indonesians and congratulate them.

[ramana]

Next step (V. 2.0) to pi$$ing off the over-fed, self pleasuring han, I have a suggestion:

As part of the ongoing (and shall I say, demonstratively successful) neutering of the han (V. 1.0), Indians should online publish maps of chini-occupied and chini-influenced lands with their original Sanskrit names. Publish them on those limited number of sites that are still accessible to the han fifty centers (wiki-bhayya comes to mind). That will take the battle to them.

Anup,

Even the name China is given by Indians.
Will dig up the reference.
Its from Rothermund and Kulke "History of India".

Before that they had no name.

[Peregrine]

The Yellow Slit Eyed Illegitimate Male Offsprings of an Unmarried Female of the Canine Species - after having Lost Out at Doklam - are now issuing Slanderous Statements :

We didn't promise loan to India to end Doklam standoff: China

BEIJING: China's defence ministry on Thursday refuted reports in the Chinese social media that India agreed to enter into an agreement on the Doklam issue after Beijing promised a loan of $20 billion.

Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang, replying to a question, said, "On your question about China providing loans to India to withdraw troops, we have checked with the relevant authorities of the government and such reports are pure fabrication."

A similar statement, refuting India taking $20billion loan, was made by the Chinese foreign ministry, while People's Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party, ran a report about the money offer being false.

But, Chinese official agencies and media seem to be keeping up the speculation on the issue alive by repeated denials because it serves the purpose of showing that China is financially much stonger than India, which makes it a difficult competitor in a military contest, said an observer.

Chinese foreign ministry recently tried to convey this idea of superiority by describing China as a "major country" while discussing the recent agreement on Doklam with India.

Despite the recent differences, the two sides will continue to make efforts to enhance military to military exchanges to "avoid misjudgement and misunderstanding", Ren said.

China's military also said it will continue to patrol the Doklam despite the recent agreement between India and China. The agreement resulted in China halting road construction in the disputed area. But the defence ministry indicated that Beijing sees this as a temporary halt and not a permanent stoppage of infrastructure construction.

"The Chinese side will continue to patrol the Donglong (Doklam) area for a long period of time to better guard our border and improve the living and working conditions of the military and civilians living in the area," Ren said.

"We have long built infrastructure construction and including building of roads. In future, we will continue to make plan for infrastructure construction taking into consideration various factors including weather conditions," Ren added.

On recent stone-pelting between Chinese and Indian troops at the Pangong lake in Ladakh, Ren said, "I would like to stress that the Indian side should enforce strict discipline on the border defence troops and abide by the agreements and consensus reached by the two sides so as to maintain peace and tranquillity along the border."

Cheers

[shyamal]

It makes CN appear pathetic. Trying to buy themselves out in a "national honour" issue while yelling about teaching a lesson.

CN domestic media seems really bad in PR. They are further damaging CNs "big power" image and projecting it like a child who resorts to bribing as a last resort when bullying does not work.

[ramana]

It makes CN appear pathetic. Trying to buy themselves out in a "national honour" issue while yelling about teaching a lesson.

CN domestic media seems really bad in PR. They are further damaging CNs "big power" image and projecting it like a child who resorts to bribing as a last resort when bullying does not work.

They did this tearful drama even when Chinese Embassy was bombed in Serbia.

[anupmisra]

Deleted with due deference to Peregrine!

[anupmisra]

Next step (V. 2.0) to pi$$ing off the over-fed, self pleasuring han, I have a suggestion:

As part of the ongoing (and shall I say, demonstratively successful) neutering of the han (V. 1.0), Indians should online publish maps of chini-occupied and chini-influenced lands with their original Sanskrit names. Publish them on those limited number of sites that are still accessible to the han fifty centers (wiki-bhayya comes to mind). That will take the battle to them.

Anup,

Even the name China is given by Indians.
Will dig up the reference.
Its from Rothermund and Kulke "History of India".

Before that they had no name.

Ramana, check this source out. http://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/. While we may not agree with it's timeline, please note the names of various places in areas currently under chini occupation.

[anupmisra]

Ancient land of Cina, an extension of the Vedic culture.

The Mahabharata refers to China several times, including a reference to presents brought by the Chinese at the Rajasuya Yajna of the Pandavas; also, the Arthasastra and the Manusmriti mention China. According to French art historian, Rene Grousset, the name China comes from "an ancient" Sanskrit name for the regions to the east, and not, as often supposed, from the name of the state of Ch'in," the first dynasty established by Shih Huang Ti in 221 B.C. The Sanskrit name Cina for China could have been derived from the small state of that name in Chan-si in the northwest of China, which flourished in the fourth century B.C. Scholars have pointed out that the Chinese word for lion, shih, used long before the Chin dynasty, was derived from the Sanskrit word, simha, and that the Greek word for China, Tzinista, used by some later writers, appears to be derivative of the Sanskrit Chinasthana. According to Terence Duke, martial arts went from India to China. Fighting without weapons was a specialty of the ancient Kshatriya warriors of India. Both Arnold Toynbee and Sir L. Wooley speak of a ready made culture coming to China. That was the Vedic culture of India.

Gerolamo Emilio Gerini (1860 -1913) has said: “During the three or four centuries, preceding the Christian era, we find Indu (Hindu) dynasties established by adventurers, claiming descent from the Kshatriya potentates of northern India, ruling in upper Burma, in Siam and Laos, in Yunnan and Tonkin, and even in most parts of southeastern China." The Chinese literature of the third century is full of geographic and mythological elements derived from India.

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_China.htm

[anupmisra]

Hey chini lurkers, read this.

Lin Yutang (1895-1976) author of The Wisdom of China and India:

"The contact with poets, forest saints and the best wits of the land, the glimpse into the first awakening of Ancient India's mind as it searched, at times childishly and naively, at times with a deep intuition, but at all times earnestly and passionately, for the spiritual truths and the meaning of existence - this experience must be highly stimulating to anyone, particularly because the Hindu culture is so different and therefore so much to offer." Not until we see the richness of the Hindu mind and its essential spirituality can we understand India...."

"India was China's teacher in religion and imaginative literature, and the world's teacher in trignometry, quadratic equations, grammar, phonetics, Arabian Nights, animal fables, chess, as well as in philosophy, and that she inspired Boccaccio, Goethe, Herder, Schopenhauer, Emerson, and probably also old Aesop."

(source: The Wisdom of China and India - By Lin Yutang p. 3-4).

Hu Shih, (1891-1962), Chinese philosopher in Republican China. He was ambassador to the U.S. (1938-42) and chancellor of Peking University (1946-48). He said: "India conquered and dominated China culturally for two thousand years without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.The Arthasastra and the Manusmriti mention China. According to Rene Grousset (1885-1952) French art historian in his book Rise and Splendour of Chinese Empire: "the name China comes from "an ancient" Sanskrit name for the regions to the east, and not, as often supposed, from the name of the state of Ch'in," the first dynasty established by Shih Huang Ti in 221 B.C.

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_China.htm#India - "Teacher of China"

From the above source:

Chinese historian Dr. Li-Chi also discovered an astonishing resemblance between the Chinese clay pottery and the pottery discovered at Mohenja daro on the Indian continent. Yuag Xianji, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, speaking at the C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar Foundation, Madras, March 27 1984 said,

" Recent discoveries of ruins of Hindu temples in Southeast China provided further evidence of Hinduism in China. Both Buddhism and Hinduism were patronized by the rulers. In the 6th century A.D. the royal family was Hindu for two generations. The following Tang dynasty (7th to the 9th century A.D.) also patronized both Hinduism and Buddhism because the latter was but a branch of Hinduism. Religious wars were unknown in ancient China. There was extensive maritime trade and religious exchanges between India and China at this period (Ad 1-600) and the massive expansion of Indian influence into southern China through Jih-nan and Chiao-chih, in what is now northern Vietnam.

[Peregrine]

DELETED

Cheers

[chola]

Gerolamo Emilio Gerini (1860 -1913) has said: “During the three or four centuries, preceding the Christian era, we find Indu (Hindu) dynasties established by adventurers, claiming descent from the Kshatriya potentates of northern India, ruling in upper Burma, in Siam and Laos, in Yunnan and Tonkin, and even in most parts of southeastern China." The Chinese literature of the third century is full of geographic and mythological elements derived from India.

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_China.htm

Sorry, Malaysia, Indonesia, Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) and Southern China (including Hong Kong) belong to the Cholas.

North Indians can have Burma and Yunnan.

I am staking claims for the Tamils now.

[anupmisra]

Deleted with due deference to Peregrine!

[anupmisra]

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_China.htm

Sorry, Malaysia, Indonesia, Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) and Southern China (including Hong Kong) belong to the Cholas.

North Indians can have Burma and Yunnan.

I am staking claims for the Tamils now.

Yanna rascal!

[anupmisra]

Time to reclaim Western C'in, the land masses in SE Asia and the seas surrounding them. There is enough documentary proof. I would present the same facts to the C'in embassy in Delhi and politely request them to stop claiming this region as theirs, and to change their official maps. Remember to sign of "With The Highest Respects".

[ramana]

Peregrine Now that Chinese are East Indians, please edit your reference.
Thanks,
ramana

Anup you too!!!

[anupmisra]

Peregrine Now that Chinese are East Indians, please edit your reference.
Thanks,
ramana

Anup you too!!!

I succeeded in removing two out of three. Need your help to remove one. Thanks.

[UlanBatori]

Ahead of Modi's BRICS visit, Chinese media praise Hinduism for preventing spread of radical Islam

Now this sets my antennas up. What's cooking in Chinese menu.

Maybe they are planning to do something to correct this "dent" in Islamist extremism. Like they did with the Sabarmati Express in Godhra.

[Peregrine]

anupmisra Ji & ramana Ji : Thy Wish is Our Command!

We didn't promise loan to India to end Doklam standoff: China

BEIJING: China's defence ministry on Thursday refuted reports in the Chinese social media that India agreed to enter into an agreement on the Doklam issue after Beijing promised a loan of $20 billion.

Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang, replying to a question, said, "On your question about China providing loans to India to withdraw troops, we have checked with the relevant authorities of the government and such reports are pure fabrication."

A similar statement, refuting India taking $20billion loan, was made by the Chinese foreign ministry, while People's Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party, ran a report about the money offer being false.

But, Chinese official agencies and media seem to be keeping up the speculation on the issue alive by repeated denials because it serves the purpose of showing that China is financially much stonger than India, which makes it a difficult competitor in a military contest, said an observer.

Chinese foreign ministry recently tried to convey this idea of superiority by describing China as a "major country" while discussing the recent agreement on Doklam with India.

Despite the recent differences, the two sides will continue to make efforts to enhance military to military exchanges to "avoid misjudgement and misunderstanding", Ren said.

China's military also said it will continue to patrol the Doklam despite the recent agreement between India and China. The agreement resulted in China halting road construction in the disputed area. But the defence ministry indicated that Beijing sees this as a temporary halt and not a permanent stoppage of infrastructure construction.

"The Chinese side will continue to patrol the Donglong (Doklam) area for a long period of time to better guard our border and improve the living and working conditions of the military and civilians living in the area," Ren said.

"We have long built infrastructure construction and including building of roads. In future, we will continue to make plan for infrastructure construction taking into consideration various factors including weather conditions," Ren added.

On recent stone-pelting between Chinese and Indian troops at the Pangong lake in Ladakh, Ren said, "I would like to stress that the Indian side should enforce strict discipline on the border defence troops and abide by the agreements and consensus reached by the two sides so as to maintain peace and tranquillity along the border."

Cheers

[Peregrine]

DELETED

Cheers

[chola]

Sorry, Malaysia, Indonesia, Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) and Southern China (including Hong Kong) belong to the Cholas.

North Indians can have Burma and Yunnan.

I am staking claims for the Tamils now.

Yanna rascal!

The Mighty Maritime State of Chennai-Chine.

Chennai, Singapore and Hong Kong will be our ports. You know how one Amreeki state California is the 6th largest economy in the world? Chennai-Chine will be greater.

[anupmisra]

anupmisra Ji & ramana Ji : Thy Wish is Our Command!

Thank you, my friend. Just looking out for you.

[Guddu]

Folks, I don't understand why we link all sorts of things with Doka La issue: NSG, Masood Azhar, Pakistan and I don't know what else is on the way.

I want to know if there is any hint from any Indian/Chinese official or any theory linking all these with Doka La.

I think it was a WION newscast where the Chinese representative said that China could be flexible with NSG in lieu of India showing flexibility on OBOR. So I think these things are discussed...it would seem to be the natural thing to do. Everything is linked to everything, none of these issues should or can be dealt with in isolation.

Guddu Ji : Herein I repeat my rant "By joining OBOR and/or CPEC India will have to give access to Traffic from and to Clapistan."

Please repeat the MANTRA "Any Land Transportation involving Clapistan HAS TO BE AVOIDED LIKE THE PLAGUE!" BASTA!"
Cheers

My comments were in response to SS, who was asking if there was any hint from any official about such linkages. I pointed such a link and made the point that such discussions probably occur. I have not advocated that we should make any concessions re OBOR.

[Guddu]

Here's some Bhutanese thinking...my thinking is that sooner or later Bhutan will need to merge with India. The journalist says there is no formal defense treaty with India!..

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinio ... n-4821334/

Giving Bhutan its due
In Doklam stand-off, the Himalayan kingdom once again came to the rescue of India’s interests, with costs to itself.

The Doklam stand-off, from the beginning, has been dominated by an India-and-China narrative, but a largely silent but firm Bhutan held some of the most important keys to the eventual resolution. It is important to clarify here that the popular narrative of India coming to the rescue of tiny Bhutan is not accurate. In the Doklam stand-off, it was India’s security that was at stake, its “chicken neck” on the line.

From the 1990s, China came up with a “package deal”, where in return for the smaller disputed Doklam area, it was willing to give bigger territorial concessions in disputed territories in central Bhutan. By 1996, the Chinese offer was repeated in a comprehensive way. Apart from disputed territory gains, it was an opportunity for Bhutan to solve its boundary dispute with China and also gain Chinese “goodwill”, which everybody these days, from the US to Russia, pursue.
Doklam, from the Bhutanese point of geography, is neither strategically important nor does it hold any economic value, as the stand-off area is frozen for most of the year and nothing can grow up there.

Bhutan’s National Assembly resolutions from the late 1970s onwards show the unresolved boundary with China was giving Bhutan severe headaches in addition to an air of uncertainty. Bhutan’s pre-democracy National Assembly saw elected representatives repeatedly getting up to either complain about Chinese encroachments through herders, setting up of temporary dwellings or not being allowed to graze. There were repeated and strong calls from these representatives across the country to solve the boundary issue with China. In the face of all of this, Bhutan in 1996 turned down the comparatively generous package deal offer mainly on the basis of Indian security concerns over Doklam.

India, China Agree To End Sikkim Stand-Off
Unknown to many in India, Bhutan had to subsequently pay for rejecting this package deal as the Chinese, after this, became noticeably more assertive and active in building roads in the border areas, even encroaching into traditional Bhutanese areas.
In the 2005 session of the National Assembly, the Bhutan government, in response to queries by people’s representatives, revealed how China was building six roads towards Bhutan with four roads already intruding well into Bhutanese territory. Bhutan, as usual, protested vociferously and China, after this extensive intrusion, agreed to freeze the construction of roads.
One example of such a road is in the Phutegang ridge which has always been Bhutanese territory, but after the road construction there, China has not been willing to concede the area in the boundary talks, citing the road in that area.
Bhutan has also had to pay in another way as the Chinese, as a negotiation tactic, have laid large claims towards the Bhutanese side on even well recognised Bhutanese areas which were recognised and respected in 1958 when Nehru visited Bhutan through Chinese-controlled Tibet. China, over the decades, has applied pressure on Bhutan, using various tactics so that Bhutan lets go of the Doklam area.

The recent stand-off was, in some ways, an opportunity for Bhutan to wash its hands of the whole affair and claim helplessness with India in the face of Chinese might. However, Bhutan, once again, strongly stood on India’s side, issuing both a demarche and a statement by the Foreign Ministry. New Delhi must appreciate the kinds of pressures that Thimphu must have come under from Beijing for taking such a stand.
It was, in fact, Bhutan’s firm and uncompromising stand that the status quo should be maintained as per the 1988 and 1998 agreements, both in its public position and behind the scenes, that allowed the face-saver of a deal for both India and China.
Coming back to the bit about India rushing to Bhutan’s security, India never intervened or even raised its voice in the past, about numerous Chinese incursions into the Bhutanese side, including the more serious road-building activities. This is because they did not affect Indian security, unlike Doklam.

Also, contrary to a lot of misguided speculation, neither the 1949 nor the revised 2007 Friendship Treaty is a “security pact”, they have no provision for any “security assistance” to Bhutan. Bhutan had the option of refusing Indian security assistance, which would have severely complicated matters for India. India came into the picture this time as the road was heading down through the disputed territory towards the Zompelri ridge (not ‘Jhumpelri’) that overlooks the chicken neck.
So the ground reality (as impossible as it may seem for some to believe) is that it is Bhutan that has once again come to the rescue of Indian security and strategic interests, with risks and costs to itself.

Boundary talks between Bhutan and China are usually an annual affair but this time even though the 25th boundary talks are overdue there has been complete silence from China’s side. When and if the talks resume, it is not known what the Chinese side will say, and the position they would take after this prolonged stand-off where harsh words have been exchanged.
During the stand-off, there was criticism from some sections within Bhutan of the stand taken by Bhutan — some felt it put it at risk in a potential fight between two giants. Voices from a younger generation on the social media brought some domestic pressure on the government, especially when national elections are only a year away in 2018.
However, the government resisted such calls from some sections as a long-term and good friend not wanting to spring a surprise on India during a moment of crisis.

During the Doklam stand-off, apart from an optimistic reading of a largely neutral Japanese statement, India, for all its new and powerful allies and friends, was largely alone. It was Bhutan, which, with risk to itself, stood by India, all through, to the very end.
The writer is the editor and founder of ‘The Bhutanese’, a private newspaper in Thimphu, Bhutan