Why did the Chinese-government approved Hunan Map Press and the Hubei Bureau of Surveying Mapping and Geo-Information suddenly decide to issue a map that shows Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin and parts of the Karakorum tracts as integral parts of China?
The fact that the atlas was issued when a delegation led by the vice-president of India was in that country to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Panchsheel, the five principles of peaceful co-existence, makes it all the more disquieting. Concurrently, China violated Indian land and airspace in Pangong Tso and Chushul region of Ladakh respectively. An infelicitous coincidence or a deliberate design?
Provocation and harmony cannot go in tandem. However, as the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu said, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”.
It is not the first time that the Chinese leadership has shown utter disregard for Indian sensitivities. Way back in 1979, while the then external affairs minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was on a visit to that country, China invaded Vietnam, compelling Mr Vajpayee to cancel his visit and return home.
Intriguingly in June this year, another Chinese mapping authority, Sino Mass Press, ostensibly issued a new map of that country showing 80 per cent of the South China Sea as 0internal Chinese waters. Earlier, in 1995, in pursuit of historical if not mythological claims, China had occupied Mischief Reef, and in 2012 it had seized Scarborough shoal both in the South China Sea and regarded as Philippines territory. The hard ball it played with Japan in September 2010 on the Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands dispute still riles the region.
Why do nations indulge in creative cartography? Maps denote the renewal of a nation’s persona and identity. In the case of China, the politico-strategic leadership has always believed that the past two centuries, because of the imperial occupation of large parts of Asia, do not represent the natural order of things. It therefore invokes annals and ancient narratives to lay substantial claims on foreign territories. This is then further reinforced by conjectural cartography that bestows upon itself expansive latitude in delineating national boundaries to substantiate these abstract entitlements. Not only do they celebrate the extent of China’s eminent domain, but also mourn the loss of national territories.
With the economic rise of China and the consequential influence it wields, even militarily, in the region, it has developed a hazardous propensity to try and correct perceived historical injustices. While rewriting history has its own perils, gerrymandering is a sure recipe for disaster. However, the Chinese leadership has demonstrated the will, erroneously, to leverage its comprehensive national power and ignore international opprobrium in pursuit of its territorial designs. The power play in the South & East China Sea cannot but help the obvious conclusion that map making in China is a precursor to the more ominous actions that follow.
What are the lessons that India ought to draw from this latest provocation as well as the continual stand off on the border question over the decades? To understand the issue beyond the fact that the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is repeatedly transgressed under the subterfuge that it is inconsistent with the perception line that both the countries have of their respective borders, a peep into the past to discern mindsets shaped by national narratives is imperative.
Both India and China in their current avatars came into existence in 1947 and 1949 respectively. While Indian Independence was the result of a pacifist struggle against imperialism led by Mahatma Gandhi and his colleagues, the Chinese state was born out of a violent and protracted armed struggle led by Mao Zedong and his comrades. Though the Mao years were repudiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, the fundamental reality that got embedded in the Chinese psyche was deference for and a reverence to strength. While there may be a lot of economic liberalism on display — it is glorious to be rich, and have Weibo, the Chinese Twitter — at its core China remains a hard state. Historical mores and contemporary milieus shape the worldview of nation states. They invariably view other countries through that prism.
A classic manifestation of this truism is that notwithstanding the magniloquence that Asian affairs should be left to Asians, China has never challenged the claim of the United States of being an Asian power. China recognises that with its hub and spoke network of military alliances and now the Asian pivot, the US is the balancer of the first and last resort in the Asia-Pacific region. Strength begets respect.
It therefore should come as no surprise that whenever a change of government takes place in New Delhi, the Chinese state would be tempted to probe the temperament, will and resolve of the new dispensation, especially now since the current Prime Minister had stated during the parliamentary election campaign in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, that “no power on earth can take away even an inch from India. Moreover the present world does not accept an expansionist attitude. Times have changed; China should give up its expansionist attitude and adopt a developmental mindset”. Now contrast this with the rather lackadaisical response of the new government to the cartographic aggression stating, “Cartographic depictions do not change the reality on the ground”. Can it then be concluded that the BJP government is nonchalant about misrepresentation of Indian territory on the atlases of the world?
Coupled with this is the fact that no firm message was given by the new government to the visiting Chinese foreign minister despite the bombast of the BJP while in Opposition on the issue of border intrusions, stapled visas etc. This perhaps served to consolidate the impression in the minds of our north-eastern neighbour that this government is unwilling to walk its tough talk.
This would have implications in the immediate future on a broad range of bilateral and multilateral issues germane to both the countries. Nothing can be more damaging than the impression that the party in government is blasé about its past utterances.
In addition to the international repercussions, back home it only reinforces the growing perception that has been created over the past one month — that the words and actions of this government are two parallel tracks not destined to meet.
The writer is a lawyer and a former Union
minister. The views expressed are personal. Twitter handle
@manishtewari
