Game-changers ahead on the (long) Maritime Silk Road

Overall a good article by Pepe.

I wish somebody could convey to him just how discredited NDTV is for most of India’s native language speakers: they’re commonly referred to as “desh dhrohi samachar/news/TV “; ie lit “anti-national news/TV” = “traitor/5th columnist TV/news”. It’s a channel that was associated with US multinational GE, and was for years an MSNBC/NBC affiliate. They are the epitome of groveling Anglophile Liberal Western Delhite aholes that spend their dysfunctional lives aping Western Malthusian liberals. They often flog Western brands such as Harley Davidson in their reports (showing just how out of touch they are given that a Harley bikes are a Western luxury item that over 95% of population cannot afford) while ridiculing Chinese and Indian brands. They are totally out of touch with the general public.

They are under investigation for corruption and money laundering from Western sources: violating India’s equivalent of the SEC laws and being implicated in at least a $50Million money laundering & corruption scheme that has connections to foreign governments (i.e. UK govts of Blair & Brown). Their main anchor Bharka Dutt was caught red handed (on tape -telephone intercept by Indian Intelligence) engaged in influence peddling, pushing for the selection A.Raja as Manmohan Singh’s Telecom Minister (a man later jailed in India’s largest corruption scandal that saw 2G Telecom licenses “given-away” to cronies of the congress party and flipped to Western Telecom giants like Vodaphone)

Citing NDTV as a source is not credible without confirmation from reputable sources: I wouldn’t give NDTV any more credence than I would CNN during Hillary Clinton’s election efforts.

Any statement from NDTV about the sole Chinese carrier group being deployed to the Indian Ocean against India’s current 2 carriers is jingoistic mischief and disinfo from a compromised source. Likewise, if NDTV is the only source regarding India and the US sharing intelligence on Chinese naval movements, then it cannot be taken seriously (it has to be backed by a more credible source).

Great insight from Pepe. He’s always right on top of Silk Road development.

(a) Pepe’s views would be interesting on the recent article in “The Hindu” of Nirupama Rao, formerly India’s Foreign secretary and also formerly Indian Ambassador tot he US. She suggests that India should offer China, transit and trade to Tibet via Kolkata Port and Nathu La border crossing between India and TAR of China for supplies to Tibet.As part of the OBOR initiative of China. This, in fact was the route in the early 50s, since, at taht time, connectivity from China East to Tibet was very poor. My father was an Indian Geologist working for the Govt of India. He had camped and trekked upto Nathu La in 1954. He mentioned to me , once, seeing trucks carrying supplies for the PLA in Tibet sourced through Kolkata Port.

(b) Regarding the exchange between Ciao and Mirror (in this site) on the origins of the 1962 border war between China and India, I can add the following:

(i) In the 50s and 60s , US did not recognise the PRC, but had a system of the Warsaw ambassadors of both countries meeting with each other every six months to review “matters of common interest”
(ii) State Deptt documents declassified in 2004 indicates that at the June 1962 Warsaw meeting, the US assured China that the Chinese need fear no action from Taiwan on the area of China facing Taiwan i.e. Fujian province and so on. It appears that Mao promptly moved army columns into Tibet in readiness for the hostilities which began in September 1962. “Beware of the Westerners” is the lesson to be drawn. It is possible that the US was trying to manipulate China right from the inception of the Sino-Soviet rift in 1960.
(iii) Ciao is absolutely right in saying that the root cause of India-China friction is the encouragement given by India to Dalai Lama and his clique. (There is no better word than “clique” to describe the lot . It is the word that China uses. You can hardly make the Dalai Lama responsible when he is only, say, 6 years old, typically the age at which he assumes status of Dalai lama. So, it is the “Kashag” or Council that intrigues with foreigners and takes “decisions” in the Dalai Lama’s name during his childhood and adolescence and, probably , later) . And China is well within its rights to point out that they are not , for example, hosting any Kashmiri separatist in Chinese territory.
(iv) What my fellow-Indians need to appreciate is that they have been had , and the West has succeeded in muddying the waters between India and China without sacrificing the West’s own relationship witjh China. That always happens when a superpower plays its game. My cousin, who is a US national, has spent a month in Lhasa as a visitor. It would be very difficult for me to do the same. So., the US loses nothing even if they have , indeed, organised Khampa terror in Tibet from Indian soil, but we Asian countries continue to be at odds with each other.
(v) However, the root cause of India’s unwise Tibetan involvement is not US instigation, but British intrigues at the time of our independence. Churchill hated China , though the two countries were allies in WW2. He particularly blamed Madame Chiang (wife of the then-President of China, Chiang Kai Sheik), for persuading Roosevelt to come heavily in favour of a national govt in India in 1942. Churchill resisted with all his might and Roosevelt finally threatened Churchill that “if as a result of your failure to have a national govt in India, the Japanese make further inroads into India, American public opinion would incline to review the alliance with Great Britain”. It was astrong statement made at a critical time of war. Still, Churchill remained stubborn , jailed Gandhi and Nehru and banned the Indian National Congress in 1942. He then launched the Bengal famine for the genocide of 6 million Indians during 1942-43. No famine was declared, no money was allowed to be collected anywhere in India for famine relief. Still, Madame Chiang , Eleanor Roosevelt, and Pearl S Buck (the writer who had just then got the Nobel Prize), each gave $ 25000/- for famine relief in Bengal. (I think it was given through Vijayalaxmi Pandit, Nehru’s sister who was out of jail and was organising relief). Churchill was furious, as he had been diligently keeping a wrap on what was happeniong in Bengal and did not want anything to come out .
(vi) At this time, the Tibetans were assiduously currying favour with the colonial British rulers in India. Just a year before our independence, in 1946, a “delegation” from Tibet came to Delhi , and, incidentally carried “gifts”. Two gifts, one for the King in England and one for the British Viceroy in Delhi. Nothing for any Indian! We Indians do not owe these Tibetans anything.
(vii) In early 1947, a few months before our independence, the Viceroy’s Govt desaptched to Lhasa, to re4sume charge as Trade Agent, Hugh Richardson of the Indian Civil Service (ICS). This was the elite service of colonial admninistartors , of whom, Nehru had written that “it was neither Indian, nor Civil, nor a Service !” Richardson , was a pucca Kiplingesque imperialist ever eager to take up the white man’s burden and impose himself on colonial peoples. His joining the ICS in 1930 (the year in which Mahatma Gandhi boiled sea water to get some salt and avoid the British-imposed Salt Tax , and got jailed in the process along with countless others) suggests enthusiastic support for colonial plunder. This man, Richardson continued as India’s “representative” in Lhasa even after independence until 1950. His counterpart in Foreign Ministry in Delhi was another ICS officer, Sir Girija Shankar Bajpai, who had loyally served the British during their rule,. Bajpai even lied in writing, to teh Chinese Ambassador in Delhi to conceal Richardson’s attempt to arm the Tibetans. Bajpai persuaded Sardar Patel to address a letter to Nehru warning of Chinese threats and so on. (Patel himse;lf was completely innocent of any knowledge of geopolitics). Why Nehru succumbed to all this is not clear. He had a better knowledge than most , of world politics. But there was a clutch of British-appointed bureaucrats who , in all probability, acted as surrogates of Western powers. Perhaps, even B N Mullick, the first Director of India’s Intelligence Bureau, who liaised later witht he Americans in fuelling Khampa rebellion in Tibet.
(vii) India needs to take China into confidence regarding Dalai Lama and opena new leaf. Dalai can well move to SriLanka or Myanmar where important Buddhist centres exist.