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<b> 'India would have won '62 war had it used Air Force'</b>
Press Trust of India
New Delhi, October 8, 2006
India could have defeated China in the 1962 war had the combat power of its air force been used, a top serving officer has asserted, claiming that the then political-bureaucratic combine had sought US Air Force's help but had not even consulted the IAF chief on the issue.
"In the final analysis, the use of combat air power would have turned the tables on the Chinese and the 1962 war could well have been a debacle for China," Air Vice Marshal AK Tewary said in an article in 'Indian Defence Review'.
Quoting top military and bureaucratic leadership of that time, he said the "costly and catastrophic omission" of not using the combat air arm of the IAF was a result of several factors that "impinged on the decision-making process at the highest level", including the "influence" on the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, of Prof PMS Blackett, the then Advisor for Defence who was a Britisher, as well as the counsel of then US Ambassador John K Galbraith who "over-estimated the capability of the Chinese air force in the absence of proper air defence infrastructure in India".
Another factor was the analysis of then Director of Intelligence Bureau (DIB) BN Mullick, a close confidant of Nehru, that Chinese bombers would bomb Indian cities in response to the use if IAF's combat jets, Tewary said.
He pointed out that "since IB did not have the first hand knowledge (on Chinese air force capabilities), they sought help from 'our good friends (CIA)" which exaggerated the threat.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->'India would have won '62 war had it used Air Force'<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
There would have no war if Nehru would have kept his big mouth shut.
62â was more or less like Pomeranian dog barking towards Lion.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>China oils its war machine </b>
pioneer.com
Brahma Chellaney
A striking feature of a booming Asia is how energy demands are beginning to noticeably influence strategic thinking and military planning. With China seeking greater influence from the Pacific to the Himalayas, and from Central Asia to Africa, its rising dependence on oil imports has served to rationalise both its growing emphasis on the seas and its desire to carve out greater strategic space for itself.
China's advantage is that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, it wields more international clout than Tokyo or New Delhi. It can veto any UN sanctions proposal. <b>Beijing's ability to provide political cover is a fundamental element of its thriving commercial ties with a host of problem states, from Venezuela and Sudan to Iran and Burma</b>.
<b>China appears to be positioning itself along the vital sea lanes from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea. It has helped Iran upgrade its Bandar-e-Abbas port. It is building a deep-water port for Pakistan at Gwadar, situated at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz - the only exit for the Persian Gulf oil</b>.
<b>China has begun close military cooperation with Bangladesh. And it has strategically penetrated Burma, a well-positioned country abundant in natural resources. The Irrawaddy Corridor between China's Yunnan province and the Burmese ports on the Bay of Bengal has become a key economic and strategic passageway involving road, river, rail and harbour links</b>.
As part of what an internal Pentagon study has called a calculated Chinese policy to fashion a 'string of pearls', Beijing desires to hold sway over vital sea lanes between the Indian and Pacific Oceans through a chain of bases, naval facilities and military ties. One such 'pearl' in China's sea-lane strategy, Gwadar, will not only arm Pakistan with critical strategic depth against a 1971-style Indian attempt to bottle up its navy, but it will also open the way to the arrival of Chinese submarines in India's proximity, completing India's strategic encirclement by Beijing.
<b>Gwadar, one of the world's largest deep-sea ports that will double Pakistan's sea-trading capacity, <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>already houses a Chinese electronic listening post</span> </b>. Islamabad has presented Gwadar, with its planned petroleum-handling facilities, as a potential export port for energy resources transported by pipeline from Turkmenistan.
Beijing is reinforcing the strategic significance of Gwadar by linking it up with the Karakoram Highway to western China through the Chinese-aided Gwadar-Dalbandin railway extending up to Rawalpindi. In addition, the <b>Chinese-supported Makran coastal highway will link Gwadar with Karachi. Gwadar is a critical link in the chain of Chinese facilities that stretch from the Gulf of Siam to Bay of Bengal and then to Arabian Sea.</b>
<b>Chinese security agencies already operate electronic-intelligence and maritime reconnaissance facilities on the Coco Islands - transferred by India in the 1950s to Burma, which then leased them to Beijing in 1994.</b> The main electronic-intelligence gathering station located on the Great Coco Island was completed in 1994 itself, with its radars, antenna towers and electronic equipment forming a comprehensive signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection facility.
These agencies have also positioned their personnel at several Burmese coastal points, including the Chinese-built harbours at Kyaukypu and Thilawa, and other vantage locations close both to India's eastern strategic assets and to the Strait of Malacca, through which 80 per cent of China's imported oil passes.
<b>Other moves by China include the building of container ports in Bangladesh at Chittagong (a desired military 'pearl' in Chinese eyes) and in Sri Lanka at Hambantota; an offer to fund a $20-billion canal that would cross Thailand's Kra Isthmus, thereby allowing ships to bypass the Strait of Malacca and permitting Beijing to set up port facilities there; and the construction of a railway from China through Cambodia to the sea</b>.
In addition to its creeping jurisdiction claims, Beijing is seeking to enhance its capability to project air and sea power into the South China Sea to help safeguard its strategic interests. It has upgraded a military airstrip on Woody Island and stepped up its presence in the South China Sea through oil-drilling platforms and ocean-survey ships.
To help protect China's growing energy assets in Central Asia<b>, the People's Liberation Army is setting up at least two offensively configured, armour-heavy mechanised corps modelled after the Soviet Operational Manoeuvre Groups of the 1980s</b>. Using Xinjiang as their springboard, they will 'become China's new strategic weapon' in keeping with the new doctrine to fight deep inside enemy territory and secure oilfields. By 2010, <b>China intends to put into service four to six nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines that it is building as part of the so-called 'Project 094'. </b>That would considerably narrow the Sino-Russian gap in nuclear forces. Russia today has only two nuclear subs on patrol.
In the years ahead,<b> it is very likely that Chinese nuclear subs would appear in the Indian Ocean. The issue, in fact, is not 'if' but 'when'</b>. As underlined by its plans to build a blue-water navy, Beijing clearly perceives the sea as a sphere of opportunity for extending its strategic, political and trade influence.
Japan and India can hardly ignore the military implications of China's energy-driven moves. By assiduously cultivating regimes of strategically located states, <b>Beijing has secured important naval or eavesdropping access, ostensibly for building maritime safety.</b> Once the Chinese-built naval base-cum-port at Gwadar is complete, the Chinese Navy, with its access in Burma, will be able to operate on both Indian flanks.
In addition, <b>Beijing's broad-based military-cooperation agreement with Dhaka has four apparent objectives: To bring that country into the Chinese strategic orbit; gain naval and commercial access to Chittagong; develop Burma-Bangladesh road links; and secure a doorway to India's vulnerable northeast</b>. The irony is that a power that tried hard, first to stop the birth of Bangladesh, and then to deny it UN membership, has now succeeded in presenting itself to that very country as a strategic friend and counterpoise to India.
If the Chinese navy is to be pre-empted from challenging India's dominant position in the Indian Ocean, the Indian navy will have to play a bigger role in the Strait of Malacca, a critical chokepoint for Chinese trade and energy lines. Indian naval policing of the Malacca Strait will not only vex China but also help keep direct Sino-Indian naval competition away from India's own backyard.
In the coming years, the voracious appetite for energy supplies in Asia is going to make the energy geopolitics murkier. Mercantilist efforts to assert control over oil and natural gas supplies and transport routes certainly risk fuelling tensions and discord.
<i>(Excerpted from the author's just-published book, Asian Juggernaut: The Rise of China, India and Japan, HarperCollins) </i><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tibetan refugees shot by PRC forces, witnesses silenced: video
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The video from Pro TV shows a distant figure that its narrator says is a Chinese border guard firing a rifle and a separate scene of a person in a line of figures walking through the snow falling to the ground. An unidentified man near the camera can be heard saying in English, "They are shooting them like, like dogs." Pro TV, Romania's biggest private TV station, said the video was shot Sept. 30 by Sergiu Matei, a Romanian cameraman with an expedition climbing Cho Oyu, a Himalayan peak near China's border with Nepal. The activist group International Campaign for Tibet, in a written statement, said the video proves Chinese troops fired at unarmed Tibetans and disproves Beijing's statement this week that its forces acted in self-defense after being attacked.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dharamshala condemns Nangpa Pass killings </b>
Pioneer News Service | Hamirpur
Even as it remains committed to the ongoing process of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue, the Central Tibetan Administration strongly condemned the shooting incident on September30 at Nangpa La pass, as a brazen violation of human rights, and the subsequent Chinese distortion of facts as outrageous.
Â
The Kalon for Department of Information and International Relations, Tempa Tsering said here<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> on Tuesday that though similar incidents had been reported earlier from both sides of the border. However, it is first time that various eye-witnesses have brought such killings to the international attention, as a Romanian TV station and BBC released video footage of the Chinese border patrol firing at a group of 73 people, including women and children while they were crossing into Nepal through the Nangpa La pass. </span>
In such an incident, a Tibetan nun was shot by the Chinese border patrols. She has been identified as Kelsang Nortso, aged 27, from the Nagchu region of Tibet, while the other victim was Kunsang Namgyal, aged 23, who was captured by the border troops, after a bullet hit his leg.
The Kalon said that a British police officer who witnessed the shooting and was called by the Chinese embassy for an interview, described an "intimidating" atmosphere as the security personnel "took over" the camp at Cho Oyu, on the border between Tibet and Nepal.
Every year, many Tibetans still flee into India, mainly through Nepal. They are mostly monks and nuns seeking a religious education that are not possible in Tibet. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Warning: it contains actual shooting </span> Link to video
<b>CHINESE CAPITALISM</b> <b>Putting Profits Before Human Lives</b>
By Gabor Steingart
<b>China's communists have long since given up on true communism. In the interests of profit and wealth, property is respected more than human life and workers are exploited more than in any other country. Their cheap labor is an attack on our civil societies.</b>
............
China's river plan worries India
Indrani Bagchi
[ 23 Oct, 2006 0059hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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It will bring water from the Yalong, Dadu and Jinsha rivers, which are tributaries of the Yangtze, to the upper reaches of the Yellow river.
It is the proposed western route of this project being debated in China at present that is worrying strategists and policy-planners in the Indian government.
They believe this project, if allowed unopposed, could have immense impact on lower riparian states like India and Bangladesh.
Indian officials are preparing for detailed discussions with their Chinese counterparts over the next few months. The western diversion project is inspired by a book, How Tibet's Water Will Save China , by Li Ling.
Picking up a great deal of support among the Communist party leadership in Beijing, sources said, this book details the proposal by hydrologist Guo Kai called âShuo-tianâ (reverse flow) canal, which proposes to divert the Brahmaputra.
Recently, responding to Indian media reports that China had built a dam on the Sutlej river, the Chinese foreign ministry acknowledged the dam in Zhada county in Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) but said they did it for electricity for the local population.
In doing so, they "considered fully the impact on lower reaches".
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<b>Arunachal is Chinese land: envoy</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In our position <b>the whole of what you call the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory and Tawang (district) is only one place in it and we are claiming all of that-that's our position,â </b>said Ambassador Sun Yuxi.
Sun Yuxi avoided a question on China wanting India to give up nuclear weapons. <b>"Unfortunately, we have five nuclear weapons powers in the world. That number should be reduced. We will be very happy if we can give up our nuclear weapons and are working for an international agreement on elimination of nuclear weapons,"</b> he said
China cites the Tawang Monastery, one of the last vestiges of Mahayana Buddhism, as evidence that the mountainous district of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh once belonged to Tibet and that India should hand it back to help settle the row.
The dispute over the 3,500-km India-China border led to the 1962 war. New Delhi disputes Beijing's rule over 38,000 sq km of barren, icy and uninhabited land on the Tibetan plateau, which China seized from India in the 1962 war.
China, for its part, claims 90,000 sq km of territory in Arunachal Pradesh.
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From Afghanistan till Combodia is India's land.
First China should become role model state by giving up nuclear weapon, reduce its Army to nil and give freedom to people of Tibet.
But anyway, commies are in power with Moron Singh and Queen, anything can happen and Chini wish may fulfilled in our life time.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/13raman.htm
<b>We've forgotten the past. China hasn't </b>
<b>BJP condemns Chinese envoy's remarks on Arunachal</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"The BJP condemns and deplores these remarks. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and will remain so," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said here Tuesday.
"I am amazed at why the Left parties are silent on this important issue and why the Congress is not taking a clear stand over this peculiar claim of China."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It was expected from traitors of India (Commies, Congress) to keep mouth shut.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/article...4,prtpage-1.cms
<b>'Autocratic China becoming arrogant'</b>-The Times of India
Brahma Chellaney
Wake up all Nationalists and expose the 'REDS'
11/14/2006 8:51:33 AM HK Correspondent
<i>
"There is however,one aspect of Chinese culture that is little known outside the circle of professional historians.It is the aggressive imperialism that characterizes the politics of China throughout the course of her history,at least during the part of which is well known to us.Thanks to the systematic recording of historical facts by Chinese themselves,an almost unique acheivement in Oriental countries- - - we historians are in position to follow the imperial and aggressive policy of China from the Third Century B.C. to the present day,a period of more than twenty-two hundred years- - -.It is characteristic of China that if a region once acknowledged her nominal suzerainty even for a short period she would regard it as part of her empire for ever and would automatically revive her claim over it even after a thousand years whenever there was a chance of enforcing it."
</i>
DR. R.C. MAJUMDAR,HISTORIAN. (REF: "BORN IN SIN"-CLAUDE ARPI- pp125)
Yes, The Time is ripe for Communists in China to enforce their false claims, aided and abetted by their Comrades in action here,a weak Prime Minister on board controlled by a Foreign lady in the cockpit!
Commnists in India had done their duties well as directed by their Masters in Beijing so far.The Nepal Episode,Vizhinjam port development,Approval to Chinese labourers(spies)by Yechuri were all part of the game
Acting as the 'Clearing & Forwarding Agents',for PLA 'Front Companies'.Huawei is founded by an ex-PLA officer. A few years ago, it received a staggering $10 billion as line of credit from the state-owned China Development Bank. It has long been suspected that Huawei is a PLA company. It is not listed. Its accounts are not published. Its foreign offices are alleged to be used for espionage.
Huawei has been bidding unsuccessfully to participate in BSNL projects. According to the papers, the Chinese ambassador, Sun Yuxi, has been pressing the CPI-M leadership to give Huawei and other Chinese investors a level playing field. The CPI-M now says it will ask the government why security restrictions apply to the Chinese and not the others. Huawei is not the only PLA company. According to a 2004 study, save about twenty private firms, approximately the remaining one thousand three hundred publicly listed companies in China are ultimately PLA or state controlled.
The Qualifying round games have been played superbly by their Co- Comrades.It runs in their blood. After all, during the 'QUIT INDIA MOVEMENTâ, our 'comrades' acted as agents of their 'British Mastersâ, including sending 'secret reports' to the Home Secretary, Sir Robert Maxwell.Naturally,this emboldens Beijing to lay claim on Arunachal Pradesh!
WAKE UP ALL NATIONALISTS AND EXPOSE THE 'REDS'.
<b>Free Flow: Shipping firms count on India to fill empty containers </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->HONG KONG: Looking back 150 years, one secret of the British empire's success was the full use of ships going between China and India.
<b>Steamers carried opium from India into China and tea back into China. The trade contributed to the so-called opium wars, which helped bring Hong Kong into existence.</b>
Today, the big problem for any company handling container trade with China is its trade imbalance. Because China exports so much more than it imports, containers leaving China for any destination are always full, but when the containers return, they are often empty.
But shippers are hopeful of a change as they watch the pace of industrialization in India and growing trade connections between it and China.
 Several major shipping companies are starting new links between China and India, or are expanding the services they already offer on these routes.
<b>"The trade has really started to grow in the last four to five years, and it grows very, very rapidly," </b>said Hans Meurs, a shipping expert and vice president for Asia at CMA CGM, the French container-shipping line.
Meurs's research concludes that total container trade between China and India grew 50 percent in 2005 compared with 2004, and that it will grow by 65 percent in 2006.
Still, <b>Meurs estimates that for every eight full containers exported from China, only one full container is imported into the country</b>.
Shippers like CMA CGM are looking at India to help bring the numbers closer to parity. And Emirates Shipping Lines, a new player based in Hong Kong, is promoting a China-India express service to complement its links between India and the Middle East.
<b>"China and India are both mass producing countries</b>," said Jamshed Safdar, senior vice president for marketing at Emirates Shipping Line. "<b>However we see a lot of finished goods moving from China to India and a lot of raw material and chemicals and even some finished goods from India to China."</b>
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<!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> We will never allow India to overtake: China
[ 16 Nov, 2006 1354hrs ISTPTI ]
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BEIJING: China has dismissed global forecasts that a democratic India will overtake the Communist giant on the economic front by 2020, saying those predictions lacked 'statistical evidence.'
"There is a prevailing belief in the international community that India will overtake China by 2020. This statement lacks statistical evidence," Secretary-General of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Wang Jinzhen said.
"Both are moving towards prosperity. Reform and opening up in China began in 1978 which prompted rapid economic growth. India also launched reform measures in 1991, which followed a policy of liberalisation and globalisation," he said.
"China and India are following two very different development models," Jinzhen said when asked to comment on the findings of the World Economic Forum 2006 global competitiveness rankings, which placed China 11 places behind India.
Reacting to some global experts who likened China and India to the tortoise and the hare in Aesop's famous fable, Jinzhen said "To use the analogy of the race between the tortoise and the hare for the competition between China and India is fantastic."
"Only when the hare (China) naps does the tortoise (India) overtake the hare. China will never 'nap' in the process of its economic development," he told 'People's Daily,' the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in a recent interview ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India.
Last year, China's GDP was the fourth largest in the world and India also ranked in the top ten. Both China and India are experiencing rapid economic development and expect a bright future. This has attracted worldwide attention, Wei acknowledged.
"It doesn't matter whether China surpasses India. The key issue is how to keep China on a path of sound development, with long-term, rapid and sustainable growth," the senior Chinese trade expert said.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>A Prophetic letter from Sardar Patel to Jawaharlal Nehru on arrogant China</b>
11/17/2006 8:54:11 AMÂ
<b>(REF: "MAKER'S OF INDIA'S FOREIGN POLICY- RAJA RAM MOHUN ROY TO YASHWANT SINHA"- J.N. DIXIT)
NEW DELHI 7 November 1950
My Dear Jawaharlal,</b>
Ever since my return from Ahmedabad and after the Cabinet meeting the same day which I had to attend at practically 15 minutes notice and for which I regret I was not able to read all the papers, I thought I should share with you what is passing through my mind.
I have carefully gone through the correspondence between the External Affairs Ministry and our Ambassador in Peking and through him the Chinese Government. I have tried to peruse this correspondence favourably(sic) to our Ambassador and the Chinese Government as possible, but I regret to say that neither of them comes out well as a result of this study, The Chinese Government has tried to delude us by professins of peaceful intentions.My own feeling is that at a crucial period they managed to instil into our Ambassador a false sense of confidence in their so called desire to settle the Tibetan problem by peaceful means.
There can be no doubt that during the period covered by this correspondence, the Chinese must have been concentrating for an onslaught on Tibet. The final action of the Chinese, in my judgement, is little short of perfidy. The tragedy of it is that the Tibetans put faith in us; they chose to be guided by us; and we have been unable to get them out of the meshes of Chinese diplomacy or Chinese malevolence. From the latest position, it appears that we shall not be able to rescue the Dalai Lama.Â
Our Ambassador has been at great pains to find an explanation or justification for Chinese policy and actions. As the External Affairs Ministry remarked in one of their telegrams, there was a lack of firmness and unnecessary apology in one or two representations that he made to the Chinese Government on our behalf.
It is impossible to imagine any sensible person believing in the so-called threat to China from Anglo-American diplomacy or strategy. This feeling, if genuinely entertained by the Chinese in spite of your direct approaches to them, indicates that even though we regard ourselves as friends of China,'THE CHINESE DO NOT REGARD US AS THEIR FRIENDS. With the Communist mentality of 'whoever is not with them being against themâ, this is a significant pointer, of which we have to take due note.
During the last several months, outside the Russian camp, we have been practically alone in championing the cause of Chinese entry into the UNO and in securing from the Americans assurances on the question of Formosa. We have done everything we could to assuage Chinese feelings, to allay its apprehensions and to defend its legitimate claims in our discussions and correspondence with America and Britain and in the UNO.In spite of this, China is not convinced about our disinterestedness; it continues to regard us with suspicion and the whole psychology is one, at least outwardly, of scepticism, perhaps mixed with a little hostility.
I doubt if we can go any further than we have done already to convince China of our good intentions, friendliness and goodwill. In Peking we have an Ambassador who is eminently suitable for putting across the friendly point of view. Even he seems to have failed to convert the Chinese. Their last telegram to us is an act of gross discourtesy not only in the summary way it disposes of our protest against the entry of Chinese forces into Tibet but also in the wild insinuation that our attitude is determined by foreign influences. It looks as though it is not a friend speaking in that language but a "POTENTIAL ENEMY".Â
With this background, we have to consider what new situation we are now faced with as a result of the disappearance of Tibet, as we knew it, and the Chinese expansion almost up to our gates. Throughout history, we have been seldom worried about our North-East frontier. The Himalayas have been regarded as an impregnable barrier against any threat from the North. We had a friendly Tibet, which gave us no trouble. The Chinese were divided. They had their own domestic problems and never bothered us about our frontiers.
In 1914,we entered into a convention with Tibet, which was not endorsed by the Chinese. We seem to have regarded Tibetan autonomy as extending to (an) independent treaty relationship.Presumably; all that we required was the Chinese counter-signature. The Chinese interpretation of suzerainty seems to be different. We can, therefore, safely assume that very soon they will disown all the stipulations which Tibet has entered into in the past. That throws all frontier and commercial settlements with Tibet, in accordance with which we had been functioning and acting during the last half a century, into the melting pot.
China is no longer divided. It is united and strong. All along the Himalayas in the North and North-East, we have on our side of the frontier a population not ethnologically or culturally different from Tibetans or Mongloids.The undefined state of the frontier and existence on our side of a population with affinities to Tibetans or Chinese has all the elements of potential trouble between China and us. Recent and bitter history also tells us that communism is no shield against imperialism, and that COMMUNISTS ARE AS GOOD OR AS BAD IMPERIALISTS AS ANY OTHER.Â
Chinese ambitions in this respect not only cover the Himalayan slopes on our side but also include important parts of Assam. They have their ambitions in Burma also. Burma has the added difficulty that it has no McMahan Line around which to build up even the semblance of an agreement. Chinese irrentism and communist imperialism are different from the expansionism or imperialism of the Western Powers. The former has an ideological cloak, WHICH MAKES IT TEN TIMES WORSE.
 Racial, national or historical claims lie concealed in the guise of ideological expansion. The danger from the North and North-East,therefore,becomes both communist and imperialist. While our Western and North-Western threat to security is still as prominent as before, A NEW THREAT HAS DEVELOPED FROM THE NORTH AND NORTH-EAST.
Thus for the first time after centuries, Indiaâs defence has to concentrate on two fronts simultaneously. Our defence measures have so far been based on calculations of superiority over Pakistan. We shall now have to reckon with communist China in the North and North-East, A COMMUNIST CHINA WHICH HAS DEFINITE AMBITIONS AND AIMS AND WHICH DOES NOT IN ANY WAY SEEM FRIENDLY TOWARDS US.Â
Let us also consider the political conditions on this potentially troublesome frontier. Our Northern or North-eastern approaches consist of Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Darjeeling and tribal areas in Assam. They are weak from the point of view of communications. Continuous defensive lines do not exist. There is an almost unlimited scope for infiltration. Police protection is limited to a very small number of passes.There, too,our outposts do not seem to be fully manned. Our contact with these areas is by no means close and intimate.
The people inhabiting these portions have no established loyalty or devotion to India. Even the Darjeeling and Kali pong areas are not free from pro-Mongoloid prejudices. During the last three years, we have not been able to make any appreciable approaches to the Nagas and other hill tribes in Assam. European missionaries and other visitors have been in touch with them, but their influence was in no way friendly where Indians were considered. There was political ferment in Sikkim some time ago. It is quite possible that discontent is smouldering there.
Bhutan is comparatively quiet, but its affinity with Tibetans would be a handicap. Nepal has a weak oligarchic regime based almost entirely on force; it is in conflict with a turbulent element of the population, as well as with enlightened ideas of modern age. In these circumstances, to make people aware of the new danger, or to increase the defensive strength is a very difficult task indeed; and that difficulty can be got over only by enlightened firmness, strength and a clear line of policy.
I am sure the Chinese and their source of inspiration, Soviet Russia, would not miss any opportunity of exploiting these weak spots, partly in support of their ideology and partly their ambition. In my judgement, therefore, the situation is one in which we cannot afford to be either complacent or vacillating. We must have a clear idea of what we wish to achieve and the methods by which we should achieve it.Any lack of decisiveness in formulating our objectives or pursuing our policy to attain them is bound to weaken us and increase the threats.
Along with these external dangers, we shall now have to face serious internal problems as well.Hitherto,the Communist Party of India has found some difficulty in contacting communists abroad, or in getting supplies of arms, literature etc.from them. They had to contend with the difficult Burmese and Pakistan frontiers in the East or with the long seaboard. They shall now have a comparatively easy means of access to Chinese communists, and through them to other foreign communists. Infiltration of spies, fifth columnists and communists would now be easier.
The whole situation thus raises a number of problems on which we must come to an early decision so that we can, as I said earlier, formulate the objectives and methods of our policy.Â
It is also clear that the action will have to be fairly comprehensive, involving not only our defence strategy and state of preparations, but also problems of internal security. We shall also have to deal with administrative and political problems in the weak spots along the frontier to which I have already referred.
It is, of course, impossible for me to exhaustively set out all the problems. I have, however, given below some of the problems which, in my opinion, require early solutions, around which we have to build our administrative or military policy measures.
(a) A military and intelligence appreciation of the Chinese threat to India, both on the frontier and internal security.
(b) An examination of our military position and such re-disposition of forces as might be necessary, particularly with the idea of guarding important routes or areas which are likely to be the subject of dipute.
©An appraisement of the strength of our forces and, if necessary, reconsideration of our retrenchment plans for the Army in the light of these new threats.
(d)A long term consideration of our defence needs. My own feeling is that unless we assure our supplies of arms, ammunition and armour, we should be MAKING OUR DEFENCE POSITION PERPETUALLY WEAK and would not be able to stand up to the double threat of difficulties both from the West and Northwest, North and Northeast.
(e) The question of the Chinese entry into UNO.In view of the Chinese rebuff, and the method it has followed in dealing with Tibet, I doubt whether we can advocate its claims any longer. The UNO would probably threaten to virtually outlaw China in view of its active participation in the Korean War. We must determine our attitude on this question also.
(f) The political and administrative steps which we should take to strengthen our Northern and North-eastern frontiers. This would include the entire borderline. Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Darjeeling and the tribal territory in Assam.
(g) Measures of internal security in the border areas, such as U.P, Bihar,Bengal and Assam.
(h)Improvements of our communications, road, rail, air and wireless in these areas and with the frontier outposts.
(i)Policing and intelligence of frontier outposts.
(j) The future of our mission at Lhasa and the trade posts at Gyangtse and Yatung and the forces we have in operation in Tibet to guard the trade routes.
(k) The policy in regard to the McMohan Line.
It is possible that a consideration of these matters may lead us into wider questions of our relationship with China, Russia, America, Britain and Burma.This, however would be of a general nature, though some may be important. For instance, we might have to consider whether we should not enter into closed association with Burma in order to strengthen the latter in its dealings with China.Â
I do not rule out the possibility that, before applying pressure on us, China may do the same to Burma. With Burma, the frontier is entirely undefined and the Chinese territorial claims are more substantial. In its present position, Burma might offer an easier problem for China and, therefore, might claim its first attention. I suggest that we meet early to have a general discussion on these problems and decide on such steps as we might think to be immediately necessary and direct quick examination of other problems with a view to taking early measures to deal with them.
Yours,
Vallabhai Patel.
( COMMENT: UNFORTUNATELY,A MONTH LATER THE 'SARDAR' PASSED AWAY.THAT WAS A TRAGEDY FOR INDIA.) <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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