Border Lines

Second, India needs to get bolder and come up with a project to take a rail line right into the Kathmandu valley. In the past the presumed costs of cutting through the mountains had reinforced India’s strategic timidity. If China can bring a rail line across the daunting terrain of Tibet, why can’t India take it across the Himalayas?

Finally, India must link up its own transport projects in Nepal with those of China. Instead of worrying about something it can’t stop, New Delhi must join Beijing in opening up the Himalayan borderlands — including Tibet and Xinjing — for benefit of India and China and all those in between.

Do consider the contrast between the border policies of Beijing and New Delhi. China is building road and rail links with its neighbours in Central Asia to the west, the subcontinent and Burma to the south, and Indo-China to the southeast. India is doing the exact opposite — building fences and raising more security forces to police the borders.

While China wants to build new ports in Sri Lanka, India is digging a channel to separate itself from our island neighbour. And Delhi debates the project in terms of secularism and communalism.

China tries to integrate the regions across its borders through generous economic policies. India is miserly in offering market access for its neighbours. No wonder, Beijing relishes the free ride in India’s frontiers.

Gunboat diplomacy

It was not too long ago that China and the United States announced the restoration of bilateral military exchanges. The well-meaning attempt to build mutual military trust and confidence has been shattered by the refusal of Chinese authorities last month to permit the visit of an American carrier battle group Kitty Hawk to Hong Kong during the American Thanksgiving holiday last month.

The US navy which had brought the families of the crew to Hong Kong was embarassed by the incident. By the time Beijing reversed the decision on ‘humanitarian grounds’ it was too late.

Although China never fully explained the initial rejection of the Kitty Hawk’s visit, it was apparently meant to signal political displeasure at the US arms sales to Taiwan. As the Kitty Hawk headed back to Japan, the US navy retaliated by sailing through the Taiwan straits that separates Chinese mainland from its renegade cousin.

This is the first time in five years that a US aircraft carrier chose to go through the Taiwan straits. While China objected to the move, the US navy said with a straight face that the decision was not political but “based upon operational necessity, including adverse weather”.

Japan’s trouble

If there is even minor trouble between the US and China, Japan can barely avoid the consequences. Following the American lead, Japan too had recently initiated military confidence building measures with China.

As part of the new bonhomie, a Chinese warship, Shenzhen, had docked in at Tokyo late last month. This is the first visit by a Chinese ship to Japan since the Second World War.

The Chinese visitors were expecting to go on a guided tour of a Japanese warship belonging to the very special Aegis class. At the last minute the Japanese hosts called off the visit. The Japanese media reported that the tour was abandoned under the pressure of the US navy, which was smarting under Hong Kong’s rejection of the Kitty Hawk.

Although the US and Japanese officials denied these reports, the US navy has been concerned about leaks of classified information on the Aegis ships from Japan to China.

The writer is a professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohanntu.edu.sg