Engaging Beijing

None of this was, even remotely, deliberate. In fact, India must be amongst a handful of countries in the world, which continues to have mixed feelings about the massacre of students on the Tiananmen square in 1989. Large sections of the intelligentsia have made it more than clear that they do not subscribe to the Western description of Li Peng as the Butcher of Tiananmen.8217;

Clearly, with the Chinese army breathing down India8217;s border in Arunachal Pradesh 8212; and ever so often crossing over into Indian territory 8212; as well as sitting on 5000-odd sq kms of Indian territory in Aksai Chin, that was illegally ceded to Beijing by Pakistan, means that New Delhi has far more important things to worry about than sundry human rights violations in another country.

Such as China8217;s 8220;all-weather friendship8221; with Pakistan. Two years ago, travelling in Pakistan, Li was fully eloquent about Beijing8217;s relationship with Islamabad. Western powers as well as India are fully aware of the fact that China has transferred missile and nuclear technology to Pakistan in the past in violation of all control regimes, a fact that China both ignores or repeatedly denies.

A few days ago before he left Beijing for Mumbai, Li described India as a 8220;major country8221; in Asia that will play a 8220;bigger role in the multi-polar world.8221; Chinawatchers in the capital, wondering whether Li8217;s choice of words were deliberate or accidental, remained ominously silent.

It is this fact of two antagonistic nations, each of them within breathing distance on India8217;s borders, that is the central motivating force for New Delhi to now deal with both Pakistan and China. In mid-1998, after the Pokharan tests, the BJP government was far more naive 8212; admitting in a letter to US president Bill Clinton that the reason it went nuclear was because of a 8220;neighbour in the north8221; with whom India fought a 8220;bitter war8221; 8212; but it learnt quickly. China came down heavily, calling India a 8220;hegemonic8221; power.

Since Kargil, however, the government has applied completely different tactics. It has sought to diplomatically force the pace on issues with China, such as a delineation of the Line of Actual Control the agreement to do so was signed 7 years ago as well as an annual security dialogue 8212; the first took place last year. The sustained pressure led to the first exchange of maps in the uncontentious middle-sector for the first time in November.

It was during Rajiv Gandhi8217;s 1988 visit that Li first elaborated on his Pax Asiana view of the world. That is, the world must not be ruled by one power but there should be many centres of power. Russia, China and India, it has been attributed to Li as having then said, were the natural points of such an Asian triangle. It seems as if Beijing is now keen on reviving the concept, or at least willing to give it a long rope. Aware of the predominance of the US in world affairs and increasingly in South Asia read India, Beijing8217;s gamble with New Delhi sounds especially interesting.

Fact is, Li was very keen on making this particular trip to India. With the slew of visits since Kargil 8212; by Foreign minister Jaswant Singh, President Narayanan and a return visit by Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan 8212; the hostility of Pokharan is on the backburner. As India survived Western sanctions with a smile and a two-step and received leaders of the Permanent-Five countries, analysts say, Beijing wanted to size up an India that refused to be put down.

The Chinese government, then, wanted quick dates for Li. A somewhat surprised government went to some lengths to accommodate an old friend. After all, Li is the adopted son of Zhou-en Lai, with whom Jawaharlal Nehru and India went through a honeymoon in the 1950s.

New Delhi is keen that bilateral problems, such as the delineation of the LAC and the border, are not left to another generation to grapple. It is aware, as well, that its keenness on the issue is only matched with a deliberate vagueness on Beijing8217;s part. Government sources said they were not hopeful of any breakthroughs in the near future.

Meanwhile, Li8217;s arrival in India also coincides with the first anniversary of the flight of the young Ugyen Thinley Dorji or the Karmapa Lama to India from Tibet. Significantly, New Delhi has so far refused to give any refugee status papers to the young Karmapa despite requests by the Dalai Lama himself, because it is still undecided about the identity of the boy. It knows too, that any such recognition 8212; especially on the eve of a major Chinese visit 8212; would throw a spanner in the works of bilateral-ties-on-the-mend.