It’s business as usual as China dismisses Gilgit presence

Business, not politics, shapes bilateral relations. India and China may be involved in a row over the latter’s suspected expansionist activities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), but that cannot take away from the burgeoning economic ties between the two nations.

The number of Chinese workers in India has witnessed a steep rise in the past three years. Home ministry sources said from 900 or so during 2006-07, the number had increased to over 7,000 by June 2010.

Except defence, aviation and shipping, Chinese workers operate in almost all key sectors — telecom, power, agriculture, steel, mines, etc. The government had gone out of its way to lift a ban on Chinese firms in the telecom sector to allow the entry of telecom equipment manufacturers ZTE and Huawei.

Bilateral trade has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. It was hit by the economic meltdown of 2008 and 2009, but picked up in 2010.

India’s trade with China in 2006 was just $16 billion. Now, it is over $42 billion. But painfully for India, imports amount to $30 billion, while exports are just $11.6 billion. This import-export gap is widening, particularly with the cost of labour, land and other industrial inputs rising.

It is hard to believe that as recently as in 2005 the government had denied security clearance to Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, which had bid for contracts to build container terminals at Mumbai and Chennai ports for Rs1,200 crore and Rs494 crore.

This rejection may have put a lid on future Chinese participation in 13 ports across India with an investment potential of Rs60,000 crore.

But the government brushes aside talk of discrimination. Home secretary GK Pillai recently said, “Chinese companies are already present in India in a big way. They are working in a variety of sectors. I don’t think there is any discrimination.”

Given this reality of surging trade and manpower exchange, Beijing finally broke its silence and dismissed reports of 11,000 Chinese troops being deployed in the Gilgit area of PoK.

“We believe the attempts of some people to fabricate stories to provoke China-Pakistan or China-India relations are doomed to fail,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said on Wednesday night.

Incidentally on Tuesday, the ministry of external affairs had said it
would verify such reports independently. This means the government does not trust reports appearing in the western media.

With the Chinese also dismissing the reports, it will be business as usual.