I don’t understand China’s assertiveness on border issue: PM

Prime minister Manmohan Singh on Monday red-flagged China’s growing assertiveness and creeping propensity to flex its muscle at a talk in the Council of Foreign Relations which drew Washington diplomats and policy wonks.

Singh also spoke of the different paths India and China had chosen to rise in economic terms, and said he would not adopt his Asian neighbour’s route.

“We want the world to prepare for the peaceful rise of China as a major power. So, engagement is the right strategy for India as well as for the United States. We have tried hard to engage China in the last five years and today China is one of our major trading partners,” Singh told the Council.

“We also recognise that we have a long-standing border problem with China; we are trying to resolve it through dialogue. Both our countries have agreed that pending the resolution of the border problem, peace should be maintained in the border line. I have received these assurances from the Chinese leadership at the highest level. (But) there is a certain amount of assertiveness on the Chinese part. I don’t fully understand the reasons for it,” said Singh.

The PM timed his remarks ahead of his meeting with US president Barack Obama on Tuesday where China is likely to be one of the key points of discussion. 

India is unhappy that the Obama administration has turned a blind eye to the rising border tensions and visible differences between the two Asian neighbours.  

China has resurrected its claim to Arunachal Pradesh — almost three times as large as Taiwan -- and stepped up military pressure along the 4,057 km-northeastern frontier with India through frequent incursions. There has been a perceptible hardening of China’s stance towards India.

The Obama administration has been reluctant to take New Delhi’s side in its disputes with Beijing and shied away from cautioning it against attempts to change the territorial status quo forcibly.

As Washington and Beijing negotiate what many expect to be the principal US-Asia relationship, India is anxious to ensure that its interests are not ignored. Singh is likely to take up issue with a paragraph in the Sino-US joint statement drafted during Obama’s visit to Beijing last week that gives a role to China in bilateral issues relating to India and Pakistan.

Singh also charmed the liberal Washington power set by suggesting that progress can’t always be measured through a country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“No doubt Chinese growth performance is superior to India’s growth performance. But I
always believe that there are other values which are important than the growth of GDP -- respect for fundamental human rights, respect for rule of law, respect for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious rights,” said Singh.

“There are several dimensions to human freedom which are not always caught by the numbers with regard to the GDP. So I do believe that even though Indian performance with regard to GDP might not be as good as the Chinese, certainly I would not like to choose the Chinese path. I would like to stick to the Indian path.”

He also said India’s reforms would stick; “Once democracy decides on the basis of wide-ranging consensus, any reforms that are undertaken will be far more durable, far more effective than the reforms introduced by the writ of ruling group in a non-democratic set-up.”