Uneasy US-China relations

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL 

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There is something very similar to the perception of enemy by both India and China and both try to apply pressure by all possible means, including economic benefits, to see that respective enemy is not supported by big powers and their own concerns, however illegal or immoral they maybe, should be supported.  

However, the status of these two Asian nations is entirely different.

China is now an economic giant and a financial boss from which many nations seek help.  With largest nuke arsenals in this part of the world, China a veto member of the discredited UNSC.  Every western power is feeling uneasy with growing influence over the world of Beijing.

India, on the other hand, is not enjoying the most of big things Beijing is credited with thanks mainly to its ideological affinity with the then super power Soviet Union during the cold war era.  

Although India established economic ties with Soviet it did not get everything that Beijing got as communist country promoting Moscow’s interests in Asia.  Stopping USA from influencing Asian nations by entering into political and economic contacts with them was one of the duties of China, and it did play that role quite partly well, as Japan (and many Asian nations) became allies of USA as a member of notorious NATO.  Also, Pakistan, perhaps seeking military support, also looked up to USA since India had already managed to get terror goods (later on, also free nuclear reactors) alongside economic support from Russia in industrial  development of a  backward nation.

India is also now a nuke nation with plenty of nuke enabled missiles in its stockpiles. India has managed to get USA and its European allies support its illegal and brutal occupation of neighboring Jammu Kashmir, obviously by buying their terror goods and also paying them huge sums possibly to tide over the financial crash.

China has a big problem in the name of Tibet seeking full autonomy from China and it cannot tolerate any power supporting the Tibetan struggle for independence and even religious freedom. China has been using all available forums to ask other nations not to support the Tibetan cause and if any nation doe sit China would take punitive measure within its power. It has asked all UNSC powers to not entertain freedom movements and Russia endorses Beijing while USA and EU indirectly support the Tibetan movement and its leader Dalai Lama.  They ask China to grant Tibet autonomy.

Americans keep making noises that China is dumping its cheap and  useless goods in American market, harming domestic producers. . 

China is too touchy about its position on Tibet and does not want any interference from outside.  In 2012, for example, the Chinese government cut off all high-level diplomatic ties with Britain for more than a year after British Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai Lama.

Based on militarism, US imperialism has a long history of exploiting religious, linguistic and ethnic differences to further its ends, including during its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the war on Libya, its regime change operation in Syria, and most recently in the Ukraine.

Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in July 2011 China shouted at him, condemned the US triclomacy. Now as Washington is taking a more aggressive stance towards China on a range of issues, Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama again recently at White House, making Beijing angry. During his trip to China earlier this month, US Secretary of State John Kerry implicitly blamed the Chinese leadership for North Korea’s nuclear stand and the tensions with neighboring countries over territorial disputes in the South China and East China Seas.

Official position of USA is Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China and that the USA does not support Tibet independence.

Obama’s expressions of concern about the plight of Tibetans are completely hypocritical. As its key policy, America is using the banner of “human rights” to pursue the economic and strategic interests of US imperialism. Obama is exploiting Tibet as another issue calculated to weaken China as part of his administration’s “pivot to Asia” meant for a diplomatic offensive and military build-up in the region against Beijing. However, Obama also declared his strong support for “Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions” and hailed the Dalai Lama for his “commitment to peace and nonviolence.

The Dalai Lama, still regarded as the leader of a government-in-exile claiming to represent a large area of China, heads a movement that ultimately seeks an independent Tibet. For China the Dalai Lama in exile has long been engaged in separatist activities under the cloak of religion. China warned last Friday that Obama’s meeting would grossly interfere in the internal affairs of China, seriously violate norms governing international relations and severely impair China-US relations.

China’s capitalist restoration over the past three decades has created a huge social gulf between rich and poor. In Tibetan areas, this has been accentuated by Beijing’s promotion of Great Han chauvinism that has marginalized ethnic minorities such as the Tibetans and the Uighurs. 

Bitterness towards the Chinese leadership has been compounded by the harsh repression of any political opposition. The People’s Liberation Army seized the area the in the wake of the 1949 Chinese revolution. Following a defeated uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama and his entourage fled to India. He only finally renounced the armed struggle against Beijing in 1974, after Washington’s rapprochement with Beijing in 1972 and its acceptance of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet.

As part of  its Asia policy, Washington wants to use Tibet to ramp up the pressure on China.