CHINA DEVELOPING IT'S INFRASTRUCTURE IN A FASTTRACK MANNER

According to newspapers' reports: "India asserted that it keeps a 'constant watch' on all developments having a bearing on its security. The government is giving careful and special attention to development of infrastructure in the border areas opposite China in order to meet our strategic and security requirements and also to facilitate the economic development of these areas. This includes Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.”

S M Krishna also told the Lok Sabha that his government was aware of China building projects in developing countries, including Sri Lanka’s Colombo South Container Terminal.

THREATS




All this is good, but is it enough to just watch? In the early 1960's, India was also watching.

I am posting below an article published by Xinhua on the developments in Wetsern Tibet (Ngari region) north of Himachal and Uttarakhand.

DIRTY CHINESE TRICKS ON TRADES

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao comes to India for the second summit meeting, he brings with him the largest-ever business delegation from China to India. This must bring some cheer to the Indian business community as the visit could yield major export orders for Indian manufactures and handicrafts.

With more than $2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, Premier Wen could well have decided to use some of it to redress the growing and unsustainable trade imbalance that has emerged between the two countries. With a trade surplus of nearly $20 billion in the total bilateral trade, which is expected to reach $60 billion by the end of March 2011, China must begin to take effective and urgent steps to rectify the imbalance if economic relations between the countries are to achieve their true potential.

The true potential for trade and investment flows between two giant economies that are both growing at 8-9 per cent annually, is very large. But for this potential to be exploited fully, a much higher degree of trust and understanding of each other’s core interests is required. The implication is that we cannot continue to completely segregate political and economic aspects.

The economic relationship between the two countries cannot continue to grow while political relations remain in their present fragile state. When relations are fragile, it does not take much for mutual mistrust and apprehensions to come in the way of technology, investment and even trade flows. Therefore, it would be very useful if during this visit, the Chinese premier would convey his government’s recognition of India’s core interests like Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh and protection against religious terrorism as India has done for decades with respect to Taiwan and Tibet.