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NEIGHBOURS: CHINA
Colonising Tibet
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LONG LABOUR: The line will be the highest and steepest in the world
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According
to Brahma Chellaney of the Centre for Policy Research, the Qinghai-Tibet
Railway (QTR) project is a part of China's drive to reinforce its "colonisation"
of Tibet. "It is aimed at further changing the demographic character
of Tibet as Han workers are going to be relocated in the sparsely populated
Tibet," he says. "The future of Tibet is central to India's
long-term security," the China watcher adds. The Tibetan Government-in-exile
at Dharamshala says the project will escalate the military build-up on
the plateau. It says Beijing has plans to construct three more railway
lines to Lhasa in a bid to tighten its grip on the autonomous region.
These rail links, which will become operational by 2038, are the Lanzhou-Nagchu-Lhasa,
Chengdu-Nagchu-Lhasa and Dali-Nyingtri-Lhasa routes.
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Disparate Views
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CHINA: For political consolidation
and economic development of Tibet.
TIBETANS IN EXILE: It is China's
effort to change demographic profile.
INDIA: A strategic threat as it
enables quick deployment of Chinese troops.
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The Indian defence establishment, though, is
not unduly worried about the qtr link. Although it is monitoring the project
that runs parallel to the Gormu-Lhasa highway and an oil pipeline, the
army feels that the Chinese objective is economic progress utilising the
virgin natural resources of Tibet. The Indian Army's assessment is that
China has no territorial ambitions beyond Tibet. This is evident in the
deployment of the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) on the 3,380 km Indo-China
border. Beijing has five divisions (around 60,000 men) of border defence
forces guarding its territory from Duchi bordering Arunachal Pradesh to
Aksai Chin in Ladakh. These forces are backed by a 10,000-strong reserve
of PLA troops. In comparison, the Indian Army has nearly 1,20,000 regular
troops guarding the Indian territory from Arunachal to the Siliguri corridor
in West Bengal. Regular troops also provide back-up support to the Indo-Tibetan
Border Police in Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. The perception
is that China would rather go for "coercive diplomacy" than
pose military threats to India.
With India trying to match China in economic
growth, Delhi feels that the countries will compete with each other for
the south Asian markets towards the end of this decade. According to the
government report, as many as 45 containers of Chinese goods enter Nepalese
markets from Chengdu and Sichuan. These cheap goods including electronic
items, toys, and garments are then virtually dumped into India. Delhi
feels that more highly competitive items such as "small size tractors,
bicycles and motor-cycles" from mainland China will find their way
into Indian markets once the qtr railway line is commissioned. The Indian
problems will be compounded when trade barriers go down with China expected
to join the WTO this year. While the finance and commerce ministries are
trying to assess the post-qtr scenario, the Indian Government does not
seem to have any firm plan to tackle Beijing's economic power reaching
out to South Asia.
In order to tackle the military implications
of Chinese infrastructural development in Tibet, India has launched a
parallel exercise in areas bordering China. The Indian plans include revamping
an airstrip at Daulat Beg Oldi outpost in Ladakh and building an airport
in Sikkim. Fixed-wing aircraft operations from Oldi are expected to resume
this year with landing trials beginning next month. The road network in
the Northeastern states has been expanded and there are plans to double
the Siliguri-Tinsukhia rail link. There are also proposals to build more
bridges on the Brahmaputra. These moves are aimed only at dynamic deployments
and better logistical capability.
Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji is expected
to visit Delhi this year. It is in the interests of both countries to
speed up the land-boundary settlement process and come up with confidence-building
measures that promote bilateral economic growth.
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