China and 15 diplomatic allies boycotted the Nobel Peace Prize award. The list of Beijing’s supporters included Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Cuba. Not surprisingly, it was nations that had vital economic ties to China. Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are all important oil exporters to China. And Iran and Sudan were supported at the United Nation.

Under growing pressure by its giant neighbour, Nepal and Sri Lanka as well decided against attending. Without question, Beijing’s reaction has been comically heavy-handed. The country even blacked out the BBC, CNN and other international channels during the Nobel ceremony and cut off Internet access.

Salil Shetty, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, rightly accused China of trying to “sabotage this year’s award with political pressure, arm-twisting and economic blackmail”.

According to our media sources, China issued at least four diplomatic notices urging Delhi not to attend the Nobel ceremony. India ignored the requests despite the risk that it could sour the visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

However, India, as the world’s biggest democracy, by attending has supported human rights, freedom of speech and expression. Failing to attend would have sent the wrong signal. India has never skipped a Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in previous years.

China jailed the recipient, Liu, for 11 years for writing essays and co-authoring a manifesto, Charter 08, urging political reform, protection of human rights and an independent judiciary.

Authorities in China have placed Liu’s supporters, including his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize.

It was the first time in 74 years the prestigious $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize was not handed over. In fact a fuming Beijing has now founded its own peace prize, the Confucius Peace Prize!

Wait…before ending…a very interesting question has been asked by a Mumbai-based economist. How would India react if a Nobel was given to Arundhati Roy for “championing the cause of oppressed minorities in India, particularly Kashmiris and Maoists”? Would India send its representative? Or not? That is something perhaps we will have to wait and watch!

Chindia!

This entire month Indian media, let it be newspapers or ezines, have been flooded with articles spreading hostility against China in the wake of fresh threats from the comrades arguing the travel of Dalai Lama and the Arunachal Pradesh border issue. Before I pen my views, I want to express my pain witnessing how both the media in China and India has failed to bridge between the nations and has instead escalated a trivial issue. All they need is 1) thrive on sensationalism 2) rouse patriotism among people.

People in India are threatened with a 1962 war repeat. This has apparently created more hate within the Indian community which is now bashing the Chinese non-stop. One of the chief concerns of China was the visit of its favourite rival – the Dalai Lama. It does not want the Nobel laureate to visit or make any speeches to the Tibetans in the disputed border. But, the Indian government, including the US has felt there is nothing wrong in the Buddhist leader addressing his followers. Chinese say the Dalai Lama is involved in mudslinging and mostly making political speeches instead of spiritual. Well, if you have keenly read or followed Dalai Lama’s history, you will see the man always promoted ethics and interfaith harmony. He has promoted DEMOCRACY and has always taught his Tibetan followers never to hate but to surmount it with Love. Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since he fled Chinese-controlled Tibet in 1959, insists he only seeks autonomy for Tibet to practice its unique Buddhist culture. I really don’t see any reason why China must so vehemently protest against Dalai Lama making speeches to his followers in India.

Anti-India media rhetoric in China began on the day of the Dalai Lama’s arrival in Tawang. A report entitled ‘Do not use the Dalai Card Against China’, published by Huanqiu quoted an unidentified scholar as having given a warning that ‘if India does not abandon its political manipulation of the Dalai Lama, the Chinese government, facing pressure from the people, will be forced to resort to measures for striking a blow to Indian interests’. A subsequent write-up captioned ‘India Covets Dalai Lama’s Visit’ People’s Daily Online, November 9, reproduced by Huanqiu, quoted an analyst as saying that ‘India may have forgotten the lesson of 1962, when its repeated provocation resulted in military clashes and India is now on this wrong track again’.

Time and again the Chinese want to prove they are the emerging giants in Asia. Caused by hatred against India, the country supported Sri Lanka during the LTTE war to win the confidence of the island nation and later developed the Hambantota port etc. In Pakistan, it is signing massive military deals to unnerve India. It has been alleged that they are indirectly supporting the terrorists and Maoists in India, overall to create the feeling of perplexity among Indians. None can deny this. But why make a hullabaloo over Dalai Lama’s visit? When the Chinese were hunting for Dalai Lama, it was India that gave him and his great number of followers refuge. Every time I see a Tibetan in India with the monk dress, I feel very pity. They have no money, no food, no home to call their own, yet they have so much unity among themselves. I should inform my Chinese brethren that Tibetans in India are very peaceful. India has no intentions to grab land or claim hegemony by giving refuge to Tibetans who fled your land. This is not the first time India did this. From centuries, India has been protecting and preserving cultures that came knocking for shelter (Parsis for example). This should not be made a cause of confrontation.

Now why is China threatening India with a war? This is only causing more hate than fear among Indians here. When the Chinese analyst said a 1962 war would repeat, our external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor called it “silly”. “India has come a long way since 1962. Talks of India not learning a lesson are silly,” Mr Tharoor said. Personally, I feel instead of threatening and creating a war-like situation, the governments must avoid schisms and bond with each other. Both China and India cannot claim superiority over the other. China and India both can equally respond if a war is to happen. If China thinks India can be defeated the same like 1962, then it is has got facts wrong. Indians who unduly relied on British, their army and generals during the 40’s, after post-independence, was an amateur in warfare having no training or administrative skills. Now it is not the same. India has better logistics, missiles, etc. It would be a hard game if played. Anyways, one thing is clear. India is not in a mood for war. It is now battling issues more important like poverty.

It is high time the media take the onus of bonding each other. Chinese media must immediately stop writing threats by “anonymous” analysts against India on newspapers and blogs. India on the other side must learn to maintain friendship with neighbors. The Indian media keeping in view of the democratic, secular and religious principles the country follows, must give moral and spiritual lessons to ‘godless’ people. That would make the world a better place!

Below, I have posted some comments of Indian readers (websites) that apparently divulge their feelings in the midst of all this.

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War will never solve any issues! We should avoid it at all costs. We should go at least half-way, even more! Our enemies are scattered, scattered brains! They just want to kill our innocents to ascend to heaven! We need cooperation to tackle this more than China! Yes when two brothers fight, relatives are uneasy when they meet them! Likewise, our neighbours know which side of the bread is butter & take advantage! Let us unite than see each other with suspicion! We need unity & toning down our demo-crazy! Nobody will take us seriously, otherwise! Are we ready to discipline ourselves? Why have a siege mentality?

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The main reason China will continue to develop and prosper, while India lags and moans is because of archaic, dark, and negative thinking. Look at Europe – they prosper by cooperating, collaborating, and helping each other.

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Somehow, I feel the media is playing dirty games with illiterate and empty minded politicians, not actually understanding the importance of maintaining relationship with neighboring countries. India does not have any good relationship, with any of our neighboring countries.

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China has no enemies now! They are friends with all including Japan who brutalised them in WWll, they are practical! They have solved Hongkong issue & at peace with Taiwan! In fact, they are more friends with our neighbours, sigh!!

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Sheer numbers does not win the war. India has the cutting edge technology. It has nuclear deterrent. The Chinese face difficulty in mobilizing forces along the McMohan line while Indians are very close to it…though Indians are at low heights. The Chinese were able to attack in 1962, when our soldiers did not even have the proper guns, forget whether they had bullets. They withdraw once they know the treacherous terrain would not help them continue the logistics.

Today China has built a great infrastructure along the Tibet, but India has its best airforce squadron deployed at Tezpur, Assam. In no time Su-35MKI squadron can smash the infrastructure and convert the supply lines of Chinese back to the year 1962. So invasion of Chinese is fraught with dangers for China and certainly not India.

Then comes the missiles strikes. Yes Chinese have an edge over India on missile distance. They can inflict credible damage and Indians are not here to eat peanuts. Indians missiles too can track and destroy major cities of China like Beijing and Shanghai! The PLA which has built China for so long would see the destruction in front of it’s eyes….the damage, the prestigious economic growth of China definitely will collapse, notwithstanding Indian destruction.

Ultimately, China will not able to win the war, but lose more in terms of economically. Any use of Nuclear Bombs will be definitely retaliated by not only India but also USA as USA cannot afford to see a democratic ally into ashes. Don’t also forget that Russia, France, Israel are our long time buddies!

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India will use the Dalai Lama to unsettle China from Tibet. India will soon give arms & ammunition to Tibetan freedom fighters the same way as Maoists are given arms by the Chinese govt. India will build up its navy and together with Japan & the US will encircle China. India will give all moral support to Uighur rebels to claim their birth right to independence. India will sign free trade agreements with Taiwan but deny Chinese made goods an entry into India. India will conduct high altitude air force exercise together with the US airforce. India will place nuke missiles all throughout the Indo-China border. India will launch & place a permanent spy satellite over China. India will hire computer hackers all over the world to hack into Chinese madia, govt & defense sites. India will fund democractic movements within China. India will call upon Chinese leaders to restore democracy in China. India will raise human rights violations in China in the UN.

Let the state sponsored Chinese media p!s off.

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Yes, we have to be prepared at all times! The plain fact is our neighbours are more with them than with us! But let us not get carried away! China under a command economy is more capitalist than even US. US is bailing out & indirectly nationalised the big cos, though temporarily. China is fighting US against protectionism, the latter, champion of free trade till now! They need each other more than others! China is the biggest creditor to US & US the biggest debtor! China wants US to thrive & US is calling them for co-operation not competition!

Why the future belongs to India

In preparing for a much publicised debate in London on the motion ‘The future belongs to India, not China’, I was reminded of a conversation with
my mother. She had asked, what is the difference between China growing at a rate of 10% and India at 8%? I replied that the difference was, indeed, very significant. If we were to grow at 10% we could save twenty years. This is almost a generation. We could lift a whole generation into the middle class twenty years sooner. She thought for a while and then said gently, “We have waited 3,000 years for this moment. Why don’t we wait another twenty and do it the Indian way?”

She had understood that the cost of democracy is the price the poor pay in the delay of their entry into the middle class. She did not elaborate the ‘Indian way’ but it must include taking a holiday on half a dozen New Year’s Days! It is easy to get mesmerized by China’s amazing progress and feel frustrated by India’s chaotic democracy, but I think she had expressed the sentiments of most Indians who will not trade off democracy for two per cent higher growth.

In referring to the ‘Indian way’, my mother meant that a nation must be true to itself. Democracy comes easily to us because India has historically ‘accumulated’ its diverse groups who retain their distinctiveness while identifying themselves as Indian. China has ‘assimilated’ its people into a common, homogeneous Confucian society. China is a melting pot in which differences disappear while India is a salad bowl in which the constituents retain their identity. Hence, China has always been governed by a hierarchical, centralized state – a tradition that has carried into the present era of reform communism. China resembles a business corporation today. Each mayor and party secretary has objectives relating to investment, output and growth, which are aligned to national goals. Those who exceed their goals rise quickly. The main problem in running a country as a business is that many people get left out.

India, on the other hand, can only manage itself by accommodating vocal and varied interest groups in its salad bowl. This leads to a million negotiations daily and we call this system ‘democracy’. It slows us down – we take five years to build a highway versus one in China. Those who are disgruntled go to court. But our politicians are forced to worry about abuses of human rights, whereas my search on Google on ‘human rights abuses in China’ yielded 47.8 million entries in 13 seconds! Democracies have a safety valve – it allows the disgruntled to let off steam before slowly co-opting them.

Both India and China have accepted the capitalist road to prosperity. But capitalism is more comfortable in a democracy, which fosters entrepreneurs naturally. A state enterprise can never be as innovative or nimble and this is why the Chinese envy some of our private companies. Democracy respects property rights. As both nations urbanize, peasants in India are able to sell or borrow against their land, but the Chinese peasants are at the mercy of local party bosses. Because India has the rule of law, entrepreneurs can enforce contracts. If someone takes away your property in China, you have no recourse. Hence, it is the party bosses who are accumulating wealth in China. The rule of law slows us down but it also protects us (and our environment, as the NGOs have discovered).

We take freedom for granted in India but it was not always so. When General Reginald Dyer opened fire in 1919 in Jallianwala Bagh, killing 379 people, Indians realised they could only have dignity when they were free from British rule. The massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, where 300 students were killed, was China’s Jallianwala Bagh. China today may have become richer than India but the poorest Chinese yearns for the same freedom.

Because the Indian state is inefficient, millions of entrepreneurs have stepped into the vacuum. When government schools fail, people start private schools in the slums, and the result is millions of ‘slumdog millionaires’. You cannot do this in China. Our free society forces us to solve our own problems, making us self-reliant. Hence, the Indian way is likely to be more enduring because the people have scripted India’s success while China’s state has crafted its success. This worries China’s leaders who ask, if India can become the world’s second fastest economy despite the state, what will happen when the Indian state begins to perform? India’s path may be slower but it is surer, and the Indian way of life is also more likely to survive. This is why when I am reborn I would prefer it to be in India.

The writer is speaking in a debate in London on May 12, 2009, in support of the motion ‘The future belongs to India, not China’

When tens of thousands of Tamil are dying in Sri Lanka and gross humanitarian crimes are committed there, China sneaks into relationship with the Sinhala govt. offering them complete support to “eradicate” the Tamil menace. India and US is deeply troubled of this. Both the US as well as Indian government refused to help the Sri Lankan govt with ammunition, arms or any military support, because of the human rights violation occurring there.

In the middle of all this, sneaks the Dragon like an old ally telling, “We are here to support you and finish the battle.”

Our Union home minister P. Chidambaram says “China is fishing in troubled waters. That is a lone, discordant voice among all of the global community.”

China sold huge sophisticated weapons to its new partner Colombo and also gave an aid of more than five times of $1 billion.

The Sri Lankan Air Force is bedecked by the Chinese Jian-7 fighter jets, anti-aircraft guns and JY-11 3D air surveillance radars, which have played a major role in getting success against the LTTE rebels in recent days.

US and India clearly stood on the right side and patently informed the Sinhalese that they would refuse any kind of military support for what is happening there, but amidst this all what is the Reds doing here? Our key strategist from Delhi says they have a cunning intention by offering hidden support: 1) To access the Indian ocean completely 2) To make international passageway for trade and oil in future 3) To defeat India in its development and have a close watch on all its prepositions.

China is a country that would do anything for its gain. Before the Olympics, they made sure ‘poverty’ is eradicated from the streets before the world tourists’ witness. And this they did by subjugating the poor and driving away the helpless to a Nazi kind of camp. They portray themselves as ‘developed’ country with huge skyscrapers and advanced technology while lie is being covered by another lie. It considers poverty, unemployment a shame to the ‘developed China’ tag. They have always had the complete power on anything, even to usurp the people’s basic rights. They say some developed cities in China, villagers are disallowed to enter on fear that they might dirty the place. The country really is sick. I would say my travel to Hong Kong few years back was one of my worst abroad experiences. Will share it later..

I really dont mind living in India with poverty, and all sickness, but at least the people here have complete Freedom and complete Democracy unlike China. We dont have anything to hide, let the world see us. With such a huge population, and illiteracy, it will surely take time but change is imminent.

And more disgusting to hear from the Chinese land is their birth control efforts to claim the ‘superpower’ prize. To ensure ‘birth control’ local authorities employ incentives such as medical, educational and housing benefits, and punishments including fines, confiscation of property, salary cuts or even dismissal. Officials also may refuse to issue residence cards to “out of plan” children, thereby denying them education and other state benefits.

It also includes the forced use of contraceptives, primarily the I.U.D., and forced abortion for pregnant women who already have one child. In case of pregnancies in default of the plan, measures must be taken to terminate them.

In addition, this stat is really shocking: During the past two years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of the death penalty in China. In 1993, 77% of all executions worldwide were carried out in China. On a single day, 9 January 1993, 356 death sentences were handed down by Chinese courts; 62 executions took place that day. During that year alone, 2,564 people were sentenced to death. At least 1,419 of them are known to have been executed.

Furthermore, the control of media, restrictions on Independent Organizing, the suppression of Religious Freedom etc. is a sign of its poor morals.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has singled out Pakistan for “supporting terror activities” and blamed China for its “negative attitude”.

“From time to time, China takes unpredictable positions that raise a number of questions about its attitude towards the rise of India,” he said.

Last week, the LeT terrorists who were caught sneaking into Kashmir said most of their ammunition comes from China. When scrutinized, the Indian army found that all micro bombs and guns were Chinese manufactured. When India protested against Pakistan for its terror activities, the Chinese from below supported them and even gave financial assistance. Long back the terrorist and extremist groups in Pakistan would have crumbled if the Chinese would not have appeared with an helping hand.

Tell me Prime Minister Wen Jiabao what is your intention in supporting countries and groups that are always a threat to the human society. Apart from your economic growth, and rising $$ in your money bank, do you have any other intention? We, the Indians agree, you are strong. You are powerful. You have all the best technologies, arms, stuffs that we dont have. China will spend $50 billion more each year than India. We are totally defeated, and we agree you are the next superpower..But please for God’s sake, have some mercy for the dying people. You don’t have to prove the world or India, you are strong..hehe..

Last month, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama kickstarted the ‘Thank You India’ campaign to express his gratitude towards the country for its support and protection rendered to the Tibetan community for 50 years. We Indians have offered asylum to the Tibet community for 50 years when your government mercilessly butchered them. Thousands of Tibetans in India who are receiving the best education, comfort are the testimony for our sacrifice and love.

Even in Sri Lanka, we are in no way supporting the LTTE or the Sri Lankan government. We are supporting the human cause. We are standing against the gross human rights violation and between the topsy-turvy situations; your entry has seriously questioned our integrity.

China should immediately snap its ties in supporting terrorists, and gaining control over the world through unconventional means. Let ‘China’ the next superpower have an holistic approach in helping the human society.

Adios ~ SAM