Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Dog That Did Not Bark

China and India signed huge trade deals in a Chinese visit to India. But this does not settle the differences between the two countries.

India isn't happy that China claims parts of India and that Chinese troops have crossed the border.

So India didn't say anything about two issues important to China:

The dispute intensified during Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's visit to New Delhi earlier this week, when a joint communiqué omitted India's traditional support for the 'One China' policy – the claim that China and Taiwan are a single country. The communiqué also made no reference to India's past acceptance that Tibet is a part of China

Indian officials had hoped Mr Wen's visit would help reduce the trade imbalance between the Asian rivals and soften Beijing's increasing assertiveness over disputed territories along their frontiers in Kashmir and Tawang district in India's eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

China has angered the Indian government by insisting that all visitors from Kashmir have their visa stamped on a separate sheet – indicating it does not recognise Indian sovereignty – and launching strong attacks on the Dalai Lama and Manmohan Singh, Indian prime minister, for visiting Arunachal Pradesh during last year's election campaign.

Beijing's aggressive approach has been marked by a number of minor incursions by Chinese troops across the MacMahon Line, the imprecise border mapped by British officials during the colonial era

Two logical things that India could do if China persists in pushing on the Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh issues would be to support Tibetan independence or autonomy and pursue military cooperation with Taiwan.

Taiwan might want to open the door to military cooperation by reaching out to India to share technology to build a new fighter plane. Taiwan needs them and India wants to build them. It seems to me that there is room for mutual assistance on this issue.

UPDATE: Thank you to The View from Taiwan for the link.