Recalibrate India's position on China

PENPA TSERING HAS been closely watching China's military drills in the Taiwan Strait, renaming of villages in Arunachal Pradesh and the aggression in Ladakh.

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

The president of the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala has trashed China's claims over Indian territory, citing the 1914 Simla Agreement that defines the border between India and Tibet to which Tibetans were signatories. "Tibetans are happy with that," he says. Excerpts from an interview:

Q/ China’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait have spurred concerns about a potential armed conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

A/ Some years ago, when China announced air defence identification zones, I told our American friends that if the Chinese can claim the air they will claim anything underneath that. This is exactly what is happening, and it is not just the endeavour of reunification or invasion of Taiwan. Look at the whole of South China Sea or East China Sea, alongside Japan and Taiwan. China is giving Chinese names to all these territories. This is to redefine history, remove the historical background and claim these territories as its own. Though China denies territorial hegemonic ambitions, the world knows better.

But I tell the Taiwanese that China is not ready to attack them yet. Xi Jinping keeps moving the generals and commanders from one place to another in a very short period of time. There is no time for the generals to build relations with cadres. A general and the second-in-command do not trust each other. Then there are political commissars who oversee their work and they also do not trust each other. It is good for Xi to ensure that there is no military coup against him, but it is not enough to fight a war. You need synchronisation among the cadres and also between the different arms of the military.

China is the only country that spends more money on internal security than external security threats, which demonstrates the deep distrust between the rulers and the ruled.