Dalai Lama to Taiwan, India stands up to pressure from Beijing

[lcafanboy]

Dalai Lama to Taiwan, India stands up to pressure from Beijing

Dalai Lama delivers a speech during the Namami Brahmaputra Festival.
HIGHLIGHTS

• The Dalai Lama is on 10-day visit to northeast.
• China's has opposed Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
• China is more concerned with Dalai Lama's stay in Tawang monastery.
• However, India has ignored China's protests over Dalai visit.

NEW DELHI: As China ramps up its rhetoric against the Dalai Lama's upcoming trip to Arunachal Pradesh, an unfazed India said China has been shifting its position on Tawang, making its current position less credible. The Dalai Lama kicked off his 10-day visit to the northeast on Saturday, which will take him to numerous destinations in Arunachal Pradesh on what is a purely religious sojourn.

According to his office, he will consecrate a new Tara temple in Lumla on Tuesday, followed by discourses and teachings in Dirang and Bomdila as well as in capital Itanagar. All these areas have recently entered China's claim, but it is the spiritual leader's stay and teachings in the Tawang monastery from April 5-7 that is the focus of the Chinese government's ire.

The Dalai Lama's visit and his teachings will serve to establish more clearly his spiritual sway over these Buddhist centres. Tawang monastery is second only to Lhasa in importance, and the fact that the Dalai Lama will be consecrating new temples, conducting initiation ceremonies and delivering benevolence will only cement his, and therefore India's, authority over these regions.

A cursory look at the Dalai Lama's schedule over the next 10 days shows the significance of the visit. His official schedule says he will "give teachings on Kamalashila's The Middling States of Meditation (gomrim barpa) and Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (laklen sodunma)" at Yiga Choezin. On April 7, he will confer the Rinzin Dhondup Initiation at Yiga Choezin.

"We have never conceded locus standi to China on Arunachal Pradesh," said Ashok Kantha, former ambassador to China and head of the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS). Countering the Beijing narrative, officials said China has shifted its positions on Tawang over the years to the extent that its current line lacks credibility. China withdrew beyond the MacMahon Line after defeating India in the 1962 conflict, leaving Arunachal Pradesh and Tawang in Indian possession. Neither Chou En Lai in his discussions with Nehru in 1960 nor Deng Xiaoping in 1985 referred to Tawang at all.

Jayadeva Ranade, China analyst, said the first time Tawang entered the official discussion was in 2005, by Dai Bingguo who was the special representative for boundary discussions until 2013. "In 2007, the Chinese identified Monyul (Tawang, Kameng and Dirangzon), lower Zoyul (Lohit valley) and Loyul (territory up to Walong) as central areas of interest to them," he said.

In 2006, former Chinese envoy to India Sun Yuxi went back on the 2005 agreement on guiding principles, by denying an important component of the deal to leave populated and settled areas undisturbed. Interestingly, it was Dai Bingguo who rekindled the old debate of a vaguely worded land swap in recent weeks.

Kantha said the Chinese stridency on Tawang and Arunachal Pradesh is a move away from the 1993 agreement between the two sides, "which made the LAC (line of actual control) the basis for negotiations. This was reiterated in five subsequent agreements. The Chinese are now moving away from this". In addition, China's "objections" to rail link to Tawang was specious, Indian officials said. In recent years, India has regularly rejected Chinese demarches on this issue. Meanwhile, the Chinese have continued to harden their positions. They have refused to allow pilgrimages via Demchok in Ladakh citing "disputes", on territory again occupied by India. While China participates in border trade at Nathu La, it refuses to do so at Shipki La, again citing 'dispute'.

With China intensifying its pressure on India across a broad spectrum of issues - from blocking India in the NSG to colluding with Pakistan on tactical nuclear weapons - India is quietly, but surely pushing back. India has effectively junked reiteration of the one-China policy for over six years now, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj sharply connecting it to China's acceptance of a "one-India" policy. New Delhi has increased its interactions with Taiwan, making it more visible.

The Dalai Lama, whose very existence is anathema to the Chinese official system, is more visible in official circles, including in a recent advertisement of the MP government, in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in Karnataka and now in the sensitive Arunachal Pradesh.
http://m.timesofindia.com/india/dal...ressure-from-beijing/articleshow/57976863.cms

 

[lcafanboy]

The way China is reacting, Modi government and Doval's policy seems to be working.

@IndianHawk @Willy2 @roma @Krusty@Defcon 1 @Ghanteshwar @raheel besharam @raja696 @Amr@AnkitPurohit @Akshay_Fenix@aditya10r @airtel @aditya10r@ancientIndian @Bahamut @Berkut@Bornubus @Bengal_Tiger @ersakthivel@FRYCRY @Gessler @HariSud @hit&run@hardip @indiandefencefan@IndianHawk @JayPatel @Kshatriya87@LETHALFORCE @Mikesingh@NavneetKundu @OneGrimPilgrim@pmaitra @PaliwalWarrior @Pulkit@smestarz @SakalGhareluUstad @Srinivas_K @ShashankSharma @Superdefender @Screambowl@TacticalFrog

 

[Srinivas_K]

A basic question related to chinese rants

what do these han chinese who live and dwell around North east of todays china have in common with Tibetans living 1000 of kilometers ?

They occupied Tibet, did numerous human right violations on Buddhists and still has the audacity to threaten a peaceful monk.

 

[lcafanboy]

Dalai Lama Fled To India After Failed Armed Rebellion: China
World | Press Trust of India | Updated: April 03, 2017 09:27 IST

The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet in 1959 and has lived in India in exile since then.

BEIJING: China said the Dalai Lama fled to India from Tibet in 1959 after a "failed armed rebellion", rejecting his remarks that he had no other option but to escape due to increased Chinese military action.

"As it is known to all, the 14th Dalai Lama is an anti-China separatist who have long lived in exile following a failed armed rebellion by the reactionary group of high-ranking feudal serf-owners in Tibet in March 1959," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said yesterday reacting to his comments.

"His remarks which serve his anti-China separatist purpose have no trace of facts at all," the Ministry told PTI in a written response to a query about his comments.

About his stay in India, the Ministry said, "the Chinese government is resolutely opposed to any country's support and facilitation for the 14th Dalai group's anti-China separatist activities".

The 81-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader recalled, on Saturday, during his visit to Assam that "On March 10, 1959, there were huge demonstrations in Lhasa", the Tibetan region's capital.

"Chinese military action also increased. I had no option but to escape. On March 17, I fled."



He said the warm-hearted welcome he received on his arrival at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh 58 years ago was a "moment of freedom" for him.

Chinese troops entered Tibet in October 1950 overcoming the resistance from the Tibetan army and later the Chinese control over the area was formalised in 1951.

The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet in 1959 and lived in India in exile since then.

For the third time in recent weeks, China warned India last Friday the Dalai Lama's to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as part of Tibet, will cause "serious damage" to bilateral ties.

The Tibetan spiritual leader will visit Tawang tomorrow to attend religious engagements.
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/dalai-lama-fled-to-india-after-failed-armed-rebellion-china-1676496

 

[lcafanboy]

Dalai Lama and Tibet: India’s leverage against China
TNN | Updated: Apr 3, 2017, 08.43 AM IST


HIGHLIGHTS

• Dalai Lama has expectedly steered clear of political positions, saying there is nothing new in China’s objections to his visit.
• Tibet, along with Taiwan, remains absolutely non-negotiable for China and this makes the task for Indian diplomacy more challenging.
• There is a risk of escalating tensions in an already fraught relationship between the two countries

NEW DELHI: Though India-China relations remain uneasy, Beijing's fulminations over Tibetan leader Dalai Lama's upcoming visit to Arunachal Pradesh could indicate that the Buddhist icon and the Tibet issue might provide some leverage to India in its relations with its giant neighbour.

The Dalai Lama has expectedly steered clear of political positions, saying there is nothing new in China's objections+ to his visit. Yet, the sharp language with China warning of " serious damage+ " to bilateral ties should be read with its increasing testiness over the prominence being given to the Dalai Lama.

Indian officials argue that the Dalai Lama is not doing anything that is a departure+ from his usual activities and his proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh and the famous Tawang monastery is a result of the long-standing demand of his followers. But they point out that if this really agitates China, then it also reveals a pressure point that can come handy in interactions at the political and diplomatic level.

China remains fully in control of the Tibet plateau with a strong military and administrative presence but the region, along with Xinjiang, remains a worry for the authorities as recent restrictions on religious displays in the latter area indicate.

China asks India for caution, restraint on Tawang rail link



Tibet, along with Taiwan, remains absolutely non-negotiable for China and this makes the task for Indian diplomacy more challenging.

There is a risk of escalating tensions in an already fraught relationship and commentators have pointed out that the jab, counter-jab which has marked ties needs to be moderated or at least prevented from painting both sides into positions which are politically difficult to reverse.

Indian official and political sources feel there is room to create some counter pressure on China that has been unyielding on border negotiations despite the absence of gun fire along disputed borders. Tibet and the Dalai Lama can help India counter in some measure the vice like veto China exercises+ on India's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group and its move to bring Pakistan-based terrorist mastermind Masood Azhar under UN sanctions.

To this end, the Dalai Lama has been invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan, met the visiting Australian cricket team and was feted by chief ministers of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. His visit to northeast has seen minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju in attendance.

The developments are accompanied by the Karmapa Ogyen Trinley assuming an increasingly public role after years of near solitary existence. The Dalai Lama, who remained under the shadow of suspicion over his escape from China in 1999, has not been cleared of misgivings that could never be established. This has not gone down well with China either as it suspects that he may well visit Tawang sooner or later despite a disputed succession there. The Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang under Indian patronage seriously undermines China's claims to Arunachal Pradesh being a part of "south Tibet".

The claim has been highly exaggerated and based on contentious history and the Dalai Lama is a hugely legitimising figure for India.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...verage-against-china/articleshow/57981126.cms

@IndianHawk@Willy2@roma @Krusty@Defcon 1@Ghanteshwar@raheel besharam@raja696@Amr@AnkitPurohit @Akshay_Fenix@aditya10r@airtel @aditya10r@ancientIndian@Bahamut@Berkut@Bornubus@Bengal_Tiger @ersakthivel@FRYCRY@Gessler @HariSud @hit&run@hardip@indiandefencefan@IndianHawk @JayPatel @Kshatriya87@LETHALFORCE@Mikesingh@NavneetKundu @OneGrimPilgrim@pmaitra@PaliwalWarrior @Pulkit@smestarz @SakalGhareluUstad @Srinivas_K@ShashankSharma @Superdefender@Screambowl@TacticalFrog

 

[lcafanboy]

Dalai Lama in Arunachal: China is underestimating India, but bullying Narendra Modi won't work
Firstpost • Apr 05, 2017 17:16 IST
By Sreemoy Talukdar



Some of the rhetoric China has used against India around Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh has been inflammatory even by its own disparaging standards. I am not even referring to the jingoistic vocabulary habitually spewed by its State-controlled media. The Chinese foreign office has been periodically threatening India with "serious damage" to bilateral ties, and asking New Delhi to make a choice in the wake of the Tibetan spiritual leader's planned visit to the Tawang monastery.

When nations run into mutual disagreements over sensitive topics, there remains at least an attempt to mask the animosity with civility. In the world of diplomacy, even staid words like "dissatisfaction" or "concern" are considered strong enough to drive home official positions. This isn't a quirk of silk-tie diplomacy, but a time-tested strategy. Restraint in language allows both sides to sit across the table and mitigate areas of friction.

Unfortunately, Beijing has consistently shown a casual disregard for diplomatic niceties. It has issued naked threats against India over Dalai Lama's trip to the monastery in Arunachal's Tawang district — considered to be one of the holiest of Tibetan Buddhist sites and the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama.

China's "sensitivities" stem from the location of the monastery (it claims territorial right over Tawang) and a belief that the site — which has a non-Tibetan mongpa appointed by the Dalai Lama as its current head — is the seat of Tibetan defiance against Chinese sovereignty. Beijing claims that by merely allowing the 81-year-old to attend a monastery in his capacity as a spiritual leader, India has harmed its "territorial integrity".

Despite India's repeated assertions that no political motives should be read into a purely religious trip to Tawang, an area the Dalai Lama has visited several times in the past, and a clear commitment from Home Minister Kiren Rijiju that India is committed to the 'One China' policy, Bejing has displayed an exaggerated sense of rage.

On Wednesday, its foreign office released another strong statement. Blaming India for "damaging bilateral ties" through obstinacy by allowing the Dalai Lama to visit disputed Arunachal Pradesh, China said it will lodge a diplomatic protest.

"India in disregard to China's concerns obstinately arranged the Dalai Lama's visit to the disputed part of the eastern part of China-India border, causing serious damage to China's interests and China-India relations," its foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying.

In words that are clearly provocative in nature, Beijing warned India that border tension will "escalate" if Dalai Lama's visit isn't immediately canceled.

"We demand the Indian side immediately stop wrong actions, not hype up sensitive issues and take concrete steps to safeguard growth of India-China relations. India is keenly aware of the role of the 14th Dalai Lama. Arranging this visit to the disputed areas not only runs counter to India's commitments on Tibet, but will escalate the dispute in border areas," Hua Chunying, the foreign affairs spokesperson, was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

In the last 24 hours China, through its foreign office and State-controlled media, has accused India of deliberately playing the Tibet card to upset Sino-Indian relations, demanded that Delhi return Tawang, and warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to challenge China's "bottom line" by raising public engagements with the monk. It has also issued a rather explicit threat that not listening to these directives may lead to an escalation of the border dispute. Stripped to the bone, China is threatening India with military retaliation unless it falls in line.

Alongside the rhetorical bombast, China is also adding robust military strategic infrastructure along the disputed LAC. As Rajeev Bhattacharyya wrote in Firstpost earlier, "China is busy building at least two more roads in the Tibet Autonomous Region that will soon reach the LAC ahead of Mechuka in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The hilly and meandering route from LAC to Mechuka was one of the entry points of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in 1962 and it had reportedly reached a place called Gurudwara, which is only 15 kilometres from the subdivision headquarters."

This isn't a recent development. BBC had reported in 2014 that India is trying to play catch-up when it comes to border infrastructure along LAC after long ignoring the strategic benefits these hold for China. One of Narendra Modi's very first initiatives after assuming office in 2014 was to order the construction of a 1,800-km road along the mountainous region of LAC, stretching from Tawang "to where the borders of India and China meet with Myanmar".

The BBC report also quoted Lt Gen. JR Mukherjee, former chief of staff in India's eastern army, as saying, "China has vastly beefed up its military infrastructure in Tibet and we are only catching up. Unless we do that, China will always arm-twist us on the border and try to impose a solution on its terms."

In other words, China is consistently behaving as the big bully in the class.

Instead of diplomacy based on persuasion, highlighting of mutual interest and mitigation of friction points, it uses coercion as a foreign policy tool. Beijing doesn't seem to understand friendship and mutual cooperation in international relationships. Its geo-strategy is based either on intimidation or patronage. Depending on the geopolitical or economic might of the nation it wishes to engage with, the strategy is calibrated between these two rigid principles.

It claims exaggerated sense of betrayal over India's decision to allow Dalai Lama a Tawang visit, yet allows its own territory to be used by anti-India forces, like Paresh Barua's Ulfa faction — a banned terror group in India — which is issuing threats against Dalai Lama. Wanted in India, Baruah, according to a NDTV report, is said to be hiding in China and there have been reports that Ulfa even has training camps in the Chinese territory.

China sees red over the spiritual leader meeting his followers in the Tawang monastery, yet sees no compunction in letting the China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPEC) cut through Gilgit-Baltistan, an Indian area illegally occupied by Pakistan.

Recent reports even indicate that Beijing is nudging Islamabad towards announcing Gilgit-Baltistan as Pakistan's "fifth province", that will allow greater control over the disputed territory.

It is rather rich for China to expect that India will remain super sensitive towards its territorial integrity while it goes about trampling upon India's territorial concerns.

While there is little doubt that China is a bully, we must also understand the source of its power. Beijing's coercive foreign policy in dependent on two big enablers — its economic and military might. It has also been aided by America's declining geopolitical influence and the popular pushback against globalisation.

Every bully works on an assumption that the subject it bullies wants to avoid unpleasantness at all costs. From that point, it develops a mental advantage. As former diplomat Amit Dasgupta recently wrote in Hindustan Times, "Where Xi Jingping seriously miscalculated is that he took Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hospitality as subservience, when it was, in fact, a hand of friendship. He needs to recall that Beijing's behaviour in 2016 could not have won any friends in New Delhi."

The People's Liberation Army intruded into India's side of LAC even as Modi was playing the perfect host to Jinping — a snub the prime minister is unlikely to forget in a hurry. From sending warships to South China Sea, extending military-strategic influence in Far East, to hosting a delegation from Taiwan, Modi has since taken a series of steps aimed at showing China that India is not intimidated by its bullying.

Recent Chinese fears over Dalai Lama's visit arise from speculation that the spiritual leader may announce his successor from Tawang, a possibility China is desperate to avoid. The game isn't over yet.
https://www.google.co.in/amp/www.fi...ying-narendra-modi-wont-work-3369238.html/amp

 

[Hiranyaksha]

India to China, "Jo karna hai kar le, Hum toh karenge ".

 

[Mikesingh]

Why are we pussyfooting on Arunachal with the Chinese? Why are we being so apologetic by insisting that the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh is only religious in nature and not political? That means we are agreeing that it is disputed! WTF?

We must tell them in no uncertain terms to stop interfering in India's internal affairs. We need to summon the Chinese ambassador and issue a demarche to the Chinese to:

1. Lay off Arunachal as it amounts to gross interference in India's internal affairs.

2. Stop construction of the CPEC as it is being constructed in Indian territory. (The Chinese themselves have considered it a 'disputed area'. So how can a country build infrastructure in another's territory or a 'disputed area'? It is plain transgression of India's sovereign territory).

3. China to hand back the 5000 sq km of the Shagsgam Valley that their Paki concubines had gifted to them in the 60s. That territory belongs to the Indian state of J&K. The Chinese need to get their asses out of there fast.

4. Tell the Chinese that India does not recognize the so called nine dash line in the South China Sea.

The Chinese can only spew gas and hot air but knowing these turds, they have no balls to do anything else.

But then, do we have the balls to tell them to lay of as brought out above? That's the million dollar question.