“Our nation will never again be an insulted nation,”  China's legendary leader Mao Zedong Chi Mao declared famously in September 1949, days before the Communists took over Beijing. President Xi Jinping’s threat that those who try to bully China (read oppose its hegemony) “will face broken heads and bloodshed” is a clear sign that Beijing believes it has the right to insult others though.

It can only be speculated if Xi had any one country in mind more than the others when he uttered his undisguised threat on July 1 at a celebration to mark the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. A section of the Western media has inferred that the bellicose statement was aimed at the US and Western countries which have criticized China’s military expansion, human rights violations and its imperialist economic footprints around the world.

It will be a terrible mistake if one surmises that perhaps Xi may not have had India in mind. Indeed, the Chinese troops delivered “broken heads and bloodshed” in Galwan Valley in Ladakh in June 2020 when they killed 20 Indian soldiers with clubs and more. China’s unending aggression vis-à-vis India is too numerous, increasing steadily and widening in ambit. In contrast, the Indian response has remained muted. This is a cause for serious concern.

India ignoring CTA,  Uyghurs

Ever since the Indian government issued a classified directive as an “advisory” on February 22, 2018 – ahead of a visit by the then Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to Beijing -- telling ministries, government departments and state governments not to accept any invitation or take part in any function of the Dharamsala-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), New Delhi seemed to distance itself from the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan diaspora. The reality is that Tibetans form the mainstay of the Special Frontier Force (SFF) of the Indian Army deployed on the China border.

Thanks to the ‘please the Chinese’ directive of 2018, India is the only one of four Quad countries - the US, Australia and Japan are the other constituents - that did not, in any form, even congratulate the new President of the CTA, Penpa Tsering, on his election on May 27 this year. Nancy Pelosi of the US Congress, the US State Department, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister and MPs from the European Union, Canada, Japan and Australia sent their warm wishes to the 53-year-old whose parents fled to India with the Dalai Lama and who was born in this country. The sad thing is that even Indian MPs not linked to the ruling BJP failed to do what their counterparts from Canada, EU, Japan and Australia did.

Similarly, in 2016, India issued a visa to Uyghur dissident Doklun Isa after Beijing’s technical hold up on designating Pakistan-based Masood Azhar as an international terrorist. But New Delhi canceled the visa within days without any explanation. Isa, who was to address a public meeting in Delhi on the widespread torture and repression of Uyghurs (who are Muslims), alleged that India had capitulated to China.

In what is widely seen as a subtle message to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with several Indian Chief Ministers, extended birthday greetings to the Dalai Lama on July 6 -- unlike last year when there were no such pubic expressions amid tensions on the Sino-Indian border.  

Punitive steps not enough

True, New Delhi has taken certain punitive steps against Beijing. India banned 267 Chinese apps between June 29 and November 24 in 2020. Chinese firms have been kept away from taking part in highway projects. India has not allowed Chinese giant Huawei and 2TF to take part in the 5G trials. 

India is also unlikely to let Chinese companies into critical infrastructure areas including defense, railways, energy, IT, broadband services, banking and finance, and space and nuclear sectors. The steps triggered the inevitable response from China, which thinks that all countries should kowtow to it even if Beijing doesn’t consider them a friend.

India made a historical blunder by agreeing to consider Tibet as a legitimate part of China even as it hosted the Dalai Lama and provided the Tibetans facilities to prosper. Now China has warned India not to “meddle” in the selection of a successor to the Dalai Lama – saying this is Beijing’s prerogative. 

India has no role to play in the succession affairs of the Dalai Lama or the Panchen Lama but it still has to endure a warning from China. The least India can do is to let the Tibetan community in India select a new Dalai Lama; if there are two Dalai Lamas (one selected in India and one in China), New Delhi should have nothing to do with the Beijing-backed Dalai Lama.

China always undermining India

History has shown that China will never be a friend and will do anything and everything to undermine Indian interests in the South Asian region and beyond. India should stop lobbying with China for a place in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. 

The action taken against Chinese apps and companies are not enough; it is more important to stop treating as pariah those fighting Communist rule in Beijing: Tibetans and Uyghurs. Both minorities face terrible hardships in China. The suppression of a large majority of people in Hong Kong protesting autocratic impositions is another example of China’s authoritarian high-handedness.

On its part, China has in the past provided weapons to rebels and insurgents in India’s northeast and actively stoked the fires of Naxalbari (a village in West Bengal's Darjeeling district that saw a peasant uprising in 1967 which signaled the start of a violent ultra left-wing movement that spread to various parts of India in subsequent years). Beijing has denied visas to those hailing from parts of India -  Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh -  which China considers disputed territory. China went out of its way to isolate India after the 1988 nuclear explosions. If China can comment on Jammu and Kashmir, then India should also react to developments regarding Tibetans, Uyghurs and Hong Kong.

China is a military and economic powerhouse. It is trying to replace the old imperialist forces. Its belligerence is an indication it is unhappy in not getting the high seat it seeks. That will not be available to China as long as it browbeats other countries. China succeeded in tripping India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru before betraying him in 1962. Let not China be allowed to do that again with another Indian Prime Minister. China refrains from bullying those who stand up to it. Let it not get a feeling that India lacks the backbone.

(The writer is a veteran journalist who writes on diplomacy and politics. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ranjini17@hotmail.com)