With a new security paradigm, the Chinese ‘Maritime Silk Road’ concept will damage our thinking of China as a friend (“To China with a clear strategy”, May 12). Our strategy to have more friendly rapport with our neighbours becomes all the more essential.The Chinese game plan to surround us from Gwadar to Myanmar via Hambantota (Sri Lanka) is very clinical. We have nothing to counter this move given the vintage state of our armed forces.
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V.V. Nair,Manipal
Strangely when the U.S. wanted to forge a U.S.-India-Japan-Australia link, which was blatantly aimed at encircling and containing China, the bureaucrats and politicians of yesteryear had no misgivings. It is high time India frees itself of the old habit of kowtowing to the West and turns to the East. India should press for the membership of the SCO and join hands with China and Russia as partners, not allies.
The concerns raised by the writer are worth analysing. However, it appears that his evaluation of China’s strategy vis-à-vis India in particular, and global politics in general, needs to be examined in a different perspective. Take the case of internal settings in China. There is a dichotomy in Chinese society between economic liberalisation and political authoritarianism. How long can China get along with it, especially in this age of information and communication technology? How long can China withstand pressure from the international community over its treatment meted out to the minorities in particular, and the human rights situation in general? With regard to the external milieu, India is not as weak as it was in the early 1960s. Similarly, the benefits of a Cold War-like situation are no longer in China’s favour. There are ample checks on China in trying to play an assertive foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region. As long as the Tibetan issue remains unresolved as per the aspirations of the Tibetans, China will be handicapped. Further, its economy is rooted in intensive international trade, and the practice of an assertive foreign policy against the wishes of international comity of nations would be detrimental to China’s growth strategy.
Suresh Rangarajan,Thiruvananthapuram