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It is obvious that China cannot allow India or the US to open up a Consulate in Lhasa.China rejects re-opening of India's Lhasa consulate
August 4: China has rejected India's request to re-open its consulate in Tibet's ancient capital city of Lhasa. According to Indian media reports, Beijing instead suggested Chengdu, a city on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, as an alternative location.
In May this year, New Delhi had requested Beijing to allow India to re-open its Lhasa consulate, which was shut down following the 1962 border war between the two nations.
Although there is no official word from Beijing on the rejection, observers believe that China will not tolerate a constant foreign presence in the restive capital of Tibet. Currently, only Nepal has a consulate in Lhasa.
However, according to reports, the Indian side is not willing to settle for anything other than Lhasa.
The Indian demand came on the heels of a Chinese request to open a third consulate in the south Indian city of Chennai. Beijing already has consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata and an embassy in Delhi.
China being India's largest trade partner in goods, Indian officials have been quoted as saying that a consulate in Lhasa would help bilateral trade and pilgrimage, such as the Kailash Mansarovar yatra.
Recently, India's ambassador to China, S Jaishankar, made a rare trip to Tibet, the first by an Indian envoy in ten years. Shortly after his trip, an Indian military delegation also visited the Tibetan plateau.
India is not the only country seeking a consulate in Lhasa.
In July 2011, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee directed the US Secretary of State to forbid additional Chinese consulates in the United States until China allows a US consulate in Lhasa.
The US House of Representatives in 2009 had passed a bill authorising the establishment of a US Consulate in Tibet and also allowing the creation of a "Tibet Section" in the US embassy in Beijing.
China rejects re-opening of India's Lhasa consulate - www.phayul.com
Tibet and Xinjaing are restive and China is at sixes and sevens to take a firm grip on both these areas. They have tried every possible trick in the book - repression, threat, indoctrination, pouring in unheard sums of money and so on. Nothing has worked for China and China is in dire straits over both these region.
If one has diplomats in Lhasa, they cannot be asked to leave, as China does for all foreigners when there is any lock-down China organises to curb the restive people of Tibet. Thus, these diplomats will have a 'bird's eye view' of the reality and repression that China does first hand. That would expose China in its true colours.
China also fears that the Consulate would become a centre for the Dalai Lama's supporters and the Tibetans in general. Naturally, China is apprehensive of people they call 'splittists'. These people could catalyse the aspirations of the Tibetan people, now under Han bondage. This could also encourage the the 'splittists' of Xinjiang and then bring the Chinese dream of mining the vast natural resources of these two virgin regions that is fuelling the Chinese economy, as also it would create a 'break' in the oil and gas pipeline that is connecting China to the CAR hydrocarbon reserves.
A consulate in Chengdu is of no use to India since it does not serve any purpose.