By Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, June 6: China lodged a formal protest with India following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s social media statement expressing his intent to strengthen ties with Taiwan, a democratically governed island nation that Beijing claims as part of its territory and has repeatedly threatened to annex it forcefully.
Modi’s comments were in response to a congratulatory message from Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, who was elected last month. In his message on the social media platform X, Lai congratulated Modi on his recent election victory, stating, “My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific.”
Responding on the same platform, Modi wrote, “Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning at a media briefing said, “There is no President in the Taiwan region,” Mao asserted, “China opposes all forms of official interactions between Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China.”
China views Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland, potentially by force if necessary. Mao reiterated, “There is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China.”
Lai Ching-te, who succeeded Tsai Ing-wen as Taiwan’s President, served as vice president under Tsai for four years before assuming office. The Indian government’s policy on Taiwan remains consistent, promoting interactions in trade, investment, tourism, culture, education, and other people-to-people exchanges.
Despite the current tensions, China’s foreign ministry congratulated Modi on his election victory on June 5. “A healthy and stable China-India relationship is in the common interest of both sides and is also conducive to peace and development in the region and the world,” Mao Ning stated.
Relations between China and India have been strained since the Indo-Tibetan border standoff began on May 5, 2020, after a violent clash in the Pangong Tso area. The two nations have held 21 rounds of military talks to resolve the standoff and are working towards improving bilateral ties.
On Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party in the 543-member Lok Sabha, securing 240 seats. With support from its allies, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) crossed the 272-majority mark, ensuring Modi’s continued leadership.
The president of the Central Tibetan Administration, Penpa Tsering congratulated PM Narendra Modi on his third consecutive victory in the Lok Sabha Election on X, “Hearty congratulations to Your Excellency @narendramodi & NDA on the historic win in the elections. We are optimistic that under your leadership, India will continue to champion the values of democracy, freedom & human rights. Profoundly grateful to GOI for longstanding support”.
One Response
India has pursued a foreign policy of so called non-alignment which has made no benefit for India and has only hurt its participation in international forums and building alliances to suit its political objectives and secure its place in the world. Pandit Nehru was a highly respected world statesman but his distrust of the west and especially the US and his infatuation with the Chinese communists forced him to claim that India was neither in the Soviet camp nor in the Western camp. This suited the Chinese communists who detested the “American imperialists” and disliked the “revisionist” Soviet Union as they put it! His biggest dream was to be bosom friend of the Chinese communists who had violently overthrown the Chinese Republican Government through the help of the Soviet Union. Nehru thought that it was only logical that India and China, the two most populous nations in Asia should stand together against the machinations of the two reigning super powers in order to balance the power of the two super powers for world peace and Asian solidarity. For the Chinese communists this was more than they bargained for but as is the nature of the Chinese, they still suspected Nehru of being in cahoots with the US. They often portrayed him as a western stooge with his British education and his personal rapport with US President John F Kennedy! Pandit Nehru never received the reciprocal trust and good will he had for the Chinese communists! It was Nehru who virtually did nothing to helpTibet despite the Dalai Lama’s plea in order to remain good friends with communist China. His idealism blind sighted him from the diabolical machinations of the Chinese communists. Indian leaders had never dealt with the Chinese especially Chinese communists and had no idea about their duplicitous nature. Nehru bought all the communist rhetoric of double speak and his ambassador to China was equally naive about the real intentions of the Chinese and he was virtually bamboozled by the Chinese Premier Chou Enlai, who had an uncanny cunningness that has caught most people unawares except the Dalai Lama! Nehru believed in true friendship with communist China but the Chinese were not impressed by India’s coziness. They used Nehru’s usefulness during the Korean War and its attempt to be admitted to the UN as the Representative of China which was at the time held by the Taiwan based Republic of China let by Chang Kai Shek. India’s non-aligned policy was nothing but tying its hand at the back. The Chinese added another layer of India’s isolation by imposing a so called Panchsheel ( 5 points of co-existence) which made India more like a eunuch than a player on the world stage. Most Asian and African countries held India in esteem after it gained independence from Britain in 1947. Nehru spent all his energy on the Korean War while the Chinese were secretly coercing the Tibetans for alleged “talks” which was designed to occupy Tibet by hook or crook! Nehru paid scant attention to Tibet and went along with the Chinese to keep his dream of befriending China as his priority. Tibet was forced to sign on the dotted line the so called “17 point treaty” with the threat of conquering Tibet by force! Today, the communists are doing exactly the same thing to Taiwan by threatening them with military invasion if they don’t give up their sovereignty! It is applying the same tactic they applied on Tibet in early 1950s. India should not allow itself to be cowed by Chinese threats and instead pursue its interest since Taiwan is very important for the chip making industry. It will also be a security partner in the Indo-Pacific while losing Taiwan to communist China will up the ante in the Indo-Pacific and East Asia. It is natural to enjoy the benefits of a friendly neighbor than face a violent, aggressive and expansionist entity like the CCP. The inexcusable mistake and Himalayan blunder India had made has severely endangered India’s northern border with Tibet. All this was preventable, if India had a sense of national security conscience. India was occupied by foreign powers like the Mughals for eight hundred years and then the British occupied it for close to three hundred years! As it were, Indians didn’t even have a grasp of their own country and it’s place under the sun and lost its orientation! It never realised how it’s borders were well protected by peaceful neighbours like independent Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal! It failed to realize the immense value of Buddhist countries surrounding its north which kept the likes of China at bay and India never had any issue with China for centuries. Even the Chinese communists have their propaganda which they used to peddle by saying “India and China never had war for 2000 years”! It was all thanks to Tibet which served as a buffer between the two that war was never even a speculation let alone a reality. The Chinese had evil eyes on Tibet especially after the Manchu empire collapsed. Sun Yat Sen made first known claims to Tibet. Chang Kai Shek wrote a letter to the Tibetan Government asking to “join” China! Tibet was a great empire in central Asia from 7th to 9th century so asking to join them was like a joke than anything else! However, the Kumintang wolves managed to propagate the idea that the Dalai Lama in Tibet was just the spiritual leader to give the impression that the political leader was some one else! They threw a spanner in the works to deny the political authority of the Dalai in Tibet in their propaganda discourse! Thus, the world came to know the Dalai Lama only as spiritual Leader of the Tibetan people instead of THE TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL LEADER OF TIBET! Today, the Chinese spokeswoman had the audacity to claim “There is no President in the Taiwan region”! Really! This goes to show the perfidy of the Chinese regimes who have no respect for democracy and people’s verdict. The world knows President Laiching-te has been elected by the 23 million Taiwanese people with great fanfare as their PRESIDENT if their country but the Chinese communists give no credit to the people of Taiwan and their verdict and instead attempts to ignore it. On the other hand, Xi Jinping is an unelected dictator who has no legitimacy to be the “president” of communist China other than brute force and violent suppression of people’s aspirations! The CCP has no consent to rule China from the people of China. Its rule over China is no different from the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan! You will notice the uncanny resemblance between the two by their eagerness to fly their flags everywhere in order to legitimize their illegal usurpation of power by violence and intimidation.