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Should India reconsider its One China Policy?

Afterthe end of Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of china gained its control overthe vast mainland on China, while the power of nationalist KMT, got confined to small island of Taiwan. The war ended in 1949. The mainland controlled by Communists was called the PRC (people’s republic of China) while the Taiwan was called […]

Afterthe end of Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of china gained its control overthe vast mainland on China, while the power of nationalist KMT, got confined to small island of Taiwan. The war ended in 1949. The mainland controlled by Communists was called the PRC (people’s republic of China) while the Taiwan was called the ROC (Republic of China). However both the governments refused to acknowledge the other. Both claimed that there is only one China and that they are the real China. The PRC being mightier was more influential and accepted mostly as the only China.(here too we will frequently refer PRC as China)

The PRC have a foreign policy that for having any relation with it, a country shouldn’t have any formal relations with Taiwan.

India accepted PRC as one china as early as 1950 ; had also been in agreement of Panchsheelwith China which directed both the nations to respect each other’s territory, howeverthe agreement was soon broken by China in 1962.

Since 1962 onwards China has continuously defied the international borders and claimed control over different parts of Indian territories¹ (Galwan, Arunachal etc. are some to name). However during all these years India had been completely respectfulto the sovereignty of her neighbor. A new attempt to settle the disputes with increasing trade has also been made. Howeverthe trade could never be balanced and the trade deficit of India with PRC has grown continuously. This in turn has favored China and gave it the dominant position over India.

Afterthe Galwan strife, there was a huge outrage in the people of India against the China, mostly manifested as boycott of Chinese products. Coincidentally, owing to the fall of economy in Covid regime, the government of India too have launched “Atmanirbhar Bharat” mission in this period which will focus to make India independent in the field of manufacturing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself addressed the nation and urged people to become vocal for local. The mission was not declared as trade barrier to China but indeed, if we are aiming to become a self sufficient nation, we must pay attention towards our trade deficit with our neighbor enemy.(although India never viewed China as an enemy yet, a powerful china has always been

threatening to India). Hence in the light of India’s vow of self dependence, economic consequences of refuting One China Policy shouldn’t bother us much.

India had accepted the One China Policy to maintain the peaceful coexistence with China which couldn’t be achieved in the years that followed. Traditionally, in most of the world affairs and collisions of superpowers, India has maintained a policy to remain neutral. But India’s this approach of non alignment will not always prove good. Now, it appears very passive and at the time when China is increasing its interference on more and more land of , we would also have to take firm stand on the issues of China’s Imperialism. Recently, the work of Taiwan in Covid management has been acclaimed worldwide and Taiwan was offered an observer’s status in WHA. The people in Hong Kong have protested against the fugitive offenders amendment bills which is allegedly compromising their legal autonomy 1 . The protest have been backed by several countries. Similar protest are undergoing in Xinjiang region, the Uighers of this region are fighting for there separation. There have been huge Uigher persecution in China during recent years. In May 2019, two Canadian citizen was arrested in China to bargain the release of a Chinese convict on Canada.2 On all these issues, India now needs to present a strong view and take a firm stand.

India should also reconsider her policy towards Tibet. The one china policy now shouldn’t only be confined to PRC and ROC now, rather the issues of Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang should be addressed along.

A powerful china is no good for the world. At the time being, the fact is being recognized and there is a growing distrust towards China in many parts of the world. China has been accused of intellectual property theft and dumping3. Chinese telecom companies( like Huawei) have been

1 Hong kong is a special administrative regionof china; accededto china in July 1997. China looks after the foreign and defence affairs while the hongkong has autonomy over other matters. Xinjiang is also a autonomus region of china facing many human rights violations due to separatist movements. India’s claimed aksai chinalso falls under the region.

2 Canada had arrestedthe financial officer of huawei Meng Wanzhou on dec. 2018, on the charges of fraud at the request of USA. China bargained the arrest by detaining two canadian Michael kovrig and Michael spavor.

3 Dumping refers to excessive supplyof a product at very low cost. This destroys the other competer who manufacture the same product and finally leads to a monopoly in the market.banned in many countries after being accused of spying. China has never been fair in trade with its partners. The trade barriers in China can easily be reckoned by the fact that top social media platforms like Facebook, websites like Google and e-commerce sites like Amazon face censorship in China. This attitude has created a distrust among the nations. This distrust towards china needs to be sensed. It’s time for India to form groups and alliances and to make military agreements with other nations as a prelude to the reconsideration of its One China Policy. It is important to stop the China’s retribution after India drops the idea of One. Recently several such alliances have occurred, for example, a maritime alliance of India, Japan, Australia and USA has been formed in Indo-Pacific region to counter Chinese aggression. Similarly India is going to have military deals with japan.

One thing of prime importance is that the Chinese policy of expansionism has affected nearly all of its neighbors(former USSR being no exception)4. Additionally, the islands of South China seas have also fall pray to this policy. These islands belong to different countries which include Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan. Almost all of them have border disputes with china and despite nearly 12 of the top 15 trading partners of China are among them who are facing China’s aggression in their territory. The top two are USA and EU. The major cause of this is low cost dumping and these countries distrust to western nations. China has trade surplus with all of them. Nearly 74% of total export, i.e. about 1678 B USD out of 2263 B USD5 of China is to these countries. Owing to unfair trade practices of China, USA, Britain and Australia have imposed several tariff barriers on China. India too has banned several Chinese applications and is considering to impose tariffs. Now the aim should be to align the countries of South Asia to constrain trade with China. Boycott China campaign may not seem fruitful in solely Indian

4 China has border disputes with nearly 14 countries. They include the land neighbours Bhutan, Nepal, india, myanmar Mongolia, Tibet, the east China sea Islands( japan , north korea, taiwan etc), the South China sea islands( Brunei, indonesia, Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore etc.)

5Analysis on the data of 2017. (source:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_partners_of_China) context but if we could succeed to align all those countries having problems with china, it would by a boycott of nearly 74% of China’s exports which definitely matters. Building these alliances are important not only to check the China’s power but also to minimize China’s aggression to India on reconsidering One China Policy.

The present PRC and its threats are intrinsically connected to the communist party in power. ( Although No more communist economically). The communist party is the main cause of China’s unfair trade policies and closeness of Chinese markets. If instead a balance of power was present between nationalists and communists, the case would have been different. Since Taiwan portrays the nationalist China. It is in favor of the whole world to give recognition to Taiwan, which would also ultimately discourage the China’s expansionism.

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