By Indrani Bagchi
New Delhi, March 26 – Global strategic analyst Stratfor believes that Beijing was disturbed by the sight of Pranab Mukherjee and Condoleezza Rice jointly addressing the Tibet issue in Washington.
“Alarm is rising in Beijing that the US, India and other nations — including the UK — are actively supporting the Dalai Lama in an attempt to force policy changes in China. Protecting its territorial integrity is of utmost concern to China… Beijing is hypersensitive to real or perceived threats, always assuming the worst about outsiders’ motives,” global strategic analyst Stratfor said.
“India’s decision to allow the Dalai Lama to seek refuge in northern India in 1959 has perturbed the Chinese government ever since. Beijing believes India could control him more effectively if it wished to — and as New Delhi has in the past — but is simply choosing not to,” it added.
In India though, China plays a unique “divide” card — wooing Congress, while treating the UPA government with thinly veiled contempt. A delegation from the Communist Party of China’s international cell visited Congress headquarters here to propose a seminar in Beijing at the end of 2008 to commemorate 20 years of Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China in 1988. The leader of the delegation, Li Jinjun, also formally proposed that Rahul Gandhi head the Indian delegation. While there was little mention of Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, there were glowing references to Sonia Gandhi’s trip.
Over the weekend, the EU parliament made its first call for a limited boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Its president, Hans-Gert Pottering, told a German daily, “If there continue to be no signals of compromise, I consider boycott measures to be justified.” The only other European leader to endorse this has been French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, but this call has received little traction from around the world. Back home, MEA’s silence on China’s arrogant behaviour with Indian diplomats is attributed to India’s traditional diffidence towards the Chinese. This is the second diplomatic aggression by the Chinese towards India in the last few months after China protested against the PM’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh in February.
Last time, India stuck to an anodyne statement about Arunachal being an integral part of India. MEA, caught off balance by China yet again, will wait for the foreign minister and the foreign secretary to return from Washington before taking a position.
