Beijing pulls up PLA over India's swift rescue operations

[Rashna]

Beijing pulls up PLA over India's swift rescue operations

BEIJING: The Indian military's swift evacuation of thousands of Indians from earthquake-hit Nepal has put China's PLA on the defensive with questions raised as to why its efforts to rescue stranded Chinese nationals did not match those of India.

The media in China has questioned why air force planes were not deployed to airlift over 8,000 Chinese, many of whom are still stranded in Nepal.

In a rare comparison of India's military with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the world's largest, Chinese defence spokesman Geng Yansheng was on Thursday confronted with the question at a briefing as to why the military did not use planes to airlift stranded Chinese when India had done so to ferry its nationals.

There is considerable annoyance in China over the slow process of airlifting of Chinese tourists as well as workers employed in various Beijing-funded projects in Nepal as the task was given to a number of civilian airlines. There were also reports of some airline companies demanding heavy fares, but they were subsequently denied.

Besides airlifting thousands of its citizens, the Indian Air Force also transported about 170 foreign nationals from 15 countries to India. Several others were also transported through special buses from across the border to Bihar.


Defending the move to use civilian aircraft, Geng said "Whether to use military aircraft to transport people from a disaster area — this is to be decided by various factors."


He said that after the earthquake, the Chinese government had organized a number of civilian commercial flights to evacuate Chinese citizens stranded in Nepal. He added that soon after the quake, three helicopters from Tibet flew in food and water to a number of Chinese employees working on a hydel project and some of them were even airlifted.


India's quick response to send search and rescue teams besides relief supplies has been reported by sections of the Chinese media, while China too dispatched rescue teams and planes with supplies, by which time the Indian presence on the ground had swelled. Earlier, the Chinese foreign ministry had played down reports of competition with India to assist quakehit Nepal and offered to work with New Delhi "positively" in the relief efforts to help the Himalayan nation overcome the crisis.

Beijing pulls up PLA over India's swift rescue operations - The Times of India

The Chinese don't seem to work that well in rescue missions?

 

[pmaitra]

This might reflect more on geography than anything else.

Nepal is to the South of the Himalayas, while to the North lies the inhospitable, barren, and underpopulated Tibet, and beyond which lies China.

The territories of China, Tibet, and East Turkestan put together makes PRC (People's Republic of China).

So, China does not share a border with Nepal, and then, there is geography.

India did a fantastic job of rescue in Uttarkhand, J&K, Yemen, and now in Nepal. This also gives good real life experience to the armed forces partaking in these missions.

Of course, we can celebrate this occasion where the Indian Armed Forces raised the prestige of India over the PLA, not by waging war, but by doing something humanitarian.

 

[Rashna]

Tibet has a border with Nepal so technically China does share a border with Nepal.
The Friendship Highway (also known as the China-Nepal Highway,Chinese: 中尼公路; pinyin: Zhongni Gonglu) is a 800 kilometres (500 mi) scenic route connecting the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, with the Chinese/Nepalese border at the Sino-Nepal Friendship Bridge between Zhangmu and Kodari. It includes the westernmost part of China National Highway 318 (Shanghai-Zhangmu) and crosses three passes over 5,000m before dropping to 1,750m at the border.

Yes India has done a good job.:thumb:

This might reflect more on geography than anything else.

Nepal is to the South of the Himalayas, while to the North lies the inhospitable, barren, and underpopulated Tibet, and beyond which lies China.

The territories of China, Tibet, and East Turkestan put together makes PRC (People's Republic of China).

So, China does not share a border with Nepal, and then, there is geography.

India did a fantastic job of rescue in Uttarkhand, J&K, Yemen, and now in Nepal. This also gives good real life experience to the armed forces partaking in these missions.

Of course, we can celebrate this occasion where the Indian Armed Forces raised the prestige of India over the PLA, not by waging war, but by doing something humanitarian.

 

[Bhadra]

Of course, we can celebrate this occasion where the Indian Armed Forces raised the prestige of India over the PLA, not by waging war, but by doing something humanitarian.

Natural disasters / environmental degradations can be worse than war. What happened in Uttarakhand, a war waged by China in that region could not have brought such devastation. Though India suspects that PLA could bring in devastation in Sutlej and Vyas and further in Assam by controlling higher reached of the rivers.

A well organised and forward looking Armed Force must remain prepared for meeting the severe challenge that the nature could pose to society and the nation. Similarly, guarding against environmental degradation could be one of the national security objectives. One small river changing the course can wreck havoc on large chunk of geography and population. It can in fact mark an end of civilisation like the Indus valley civilisation without Saraswati. It is a real challenge.

But what is a matter of dismay is the dismal performance of NDRF. It is they who hog the huge budget in the name of disaster management under MHA. Several high ranking posts have been created in MHA for the benefit of the IAS and IPS etc but they remain there only for photo ops even after 15 years of their existance.

What will happen due to such calamities during war? Shall we be on our knees like Japan after nuclear attacks? Can NDRF handle such a calamity when the Armed forces are on the border engaged in a war?

 

[Bhadra]

In a rare comparison of India's military with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the world's largest, Chinese defence spokesman Geng Yansheng was on Thursday confronted with the question at a briefing as to why the military did not use planes to airlift stranded Chinese when India had done so to ferry its nationals.

This has to be understood in the context of operational objective of Chinese Strategy focussed on "Management and Pacification of the Periphery"

To quote Robert D. Blackwill and Ashley J. Tellis from "Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China "

The external advantages arising from China’s high growth rates thus
far have strengthened its capacity to achieve the third operational aim
deriving from its quest for comprehensive national power: the pacification
of its extended geographic periphery. With the success of economic
reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, Beijing finally reacquired the means to
pursue as an element of its grand strategy a systematic pacification of
its extended peripheries and entrench Chinese dominance in the Indo-
Pacific for decades to come
........................
The desire to pacify the periphery thus signifies a modern adaption
of the traditional aim to entrench China’s centrality in Asia. If Beijing
can successfully achieve these aims alongside a backdrop of continued
internal stability, sustained economic growth, and expanding military
capabilities, China’s ambition to dominate Asia would over time recreate
a bipolar system internationally. This achievement, in turn, would
further reinforce the CCP’s central domestic objective: delivering
material benefits to the Chinese population while further increasing
the country’s security and standing, thereby assuring its continued grip
on power.

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