Why China is not Pakistan

But ``these days in the virtual cyberspace, anybody is free to air his opinion under a pseudonym with no responsibilities whatsoever and these should not be blown out of proportion--as has been the case with this article,`` my Chinese friend Huang Qiang lamented.

``It may be important to note that the blog post in question seems to have been authored by a private blogger and that permission from the Party is not required in order to be able to post items on Chinese blogs. Suggestions made in the blog post are of course highly controversial, but do not necessarily represent the views of the political establishment in Beijing,`` wrote Jerker Hellstrom a sinologist from the Swedish Defence Research Agency. Except replacing the word ``controversial`` with ``alarming``, I completely agree.

``Is China the new Pakistan?``,  wondered many in the Indian media, arguing that the theme of the report was similar to Pakistan`s avowed policy to cut India down to size. Others argued that China was actually speaking on behalf of Pakistan.

Split India: Is China voicing Pak view?

It would be utterly imprudent to draw such a parallel.

Have we ever heard a Chinese President, Prime Minister or even a high level government official saying, ``We will teach India a lesson``?

Not a single Indian soldier has died on Sino-Indian frontier since 1988, compared to daily dance of death in Kashmir.

Pakistan has been directly linked with most of the terrorist attacks in India, not just by Indian intelligence agencies but the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA, and  Britain`s MI6, among others. Anti-India terrorist camps operate with impunity in Pakistan. Is there a single such camp in China, spitting venom against us?

Hate-India Internet forums, many which depict burning Indian flags on their front page, thrive in Pakistan. Is there a single such Chinese forum?

China gives scholarships to several Indian students to learn and study their culture. Have we anything remotely similar with Pakistan?

More than a 100 Chinese and Indian youngsters visit each other`s country annually as part of an exchange programme, and number is supposed to be increased to 500 soon. Do we have any such understanding with Pakistan?

When India turned into a nuclear weapons state in 1998, a Chinese professor and my friend at People`s University, China, who had taught in India for more than two years, openly asked: ``Why can not India go nuclear? Why should be it the privilege of a handful of developed countries only?`` And this at a time when then defence minister George Fernandes described China as India’s ``Number One Enemy.``

Recently, when Google incorrectly showed some parts of Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory and retracted it following Indian protests, there was hardly a big hue and cry in China.

Of course, many Chinese netizens did not like it. But as one of them, quoted by People`s Daily,  the official mouthpiece of Beijing, said: ``Solution of the international dispute depends on wisdom and strength and I can not see any haggle coming out of this Google map trifle, so why are we creating a disturbance with our neighbour over it``? Was this even noticed in India?

When a common student of Peking University writes about the greatness of Indian culture and civilization, freedom of media, liberty of expression of view by common citizen, it gets a place on the front pages of their leading official papers. Sadly, this never gets any attention in India.

Sino-Indian trade has already crossed $ 50 billion, and China has become our largest trading partner,  while the volume of Indo-Pak trade has not even crossed $ 2 billion. How many Pakistani companies are investing in India? With how many Pakistani corporate conglomerates are we planning international cooperation?

Language is probably the biggest hindrance in understanding the Chinese mindset, forcing India to look at China through a Western prism. Most of our ``China experts`` in the Indian academic and even in the Ministry of External Affairs cannot read a sentence of Chinese.

Except VV Paranjpe, who acted as an interpreter for Jawaharlal Nehru, no professional Indian interpreter has ever accompanied the  Indian Prime Ministers, Presidents or top politicians who have visited China, or even during bilateral interactions in India. Instead, they depend on Chinese interpreters.


Thirteen rounds of border talks have taken place between the two countries, but has any Indian professional interpreter ever mediated the technical interlocutions between the two sides? We have always believed what the official Chinese professional interpreters uttered.

When a friend of mine who is a Gazetted officer with the Indian government wanted permission for holidaying in China, the official reply was: ``Why do you want to visit our enemy country?``

This ``Enemy`` mindset has to be corrected. If indeed we want to be more cautious about this ``hostile nation``, we should visit them more often. As the ancient Chinese master strategist Sun Tzu said, ``Zhi bi zhi ji, bai zhan bu dai`` (Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat).

Chinese silence over India`s entry into the UN Security Council has been projected as their objection,  and we never comprehensively understood Zhou Enlai`s proposal of 1950’s of settling the boundary issue. ``The China threat`` perception persists in India, because of the defeat of 1962 war and many of us have been carrying that luggage all along.

China has developed enormously in the last three decades since Deng`s reform and open door policy.  As the Indian Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sureesh Mehta,  recently observed: ``Cooperation rather than competition or conflict with China was preferable since it would be foolhardy to compare India and China as equals in terms of economy, infrastructure and military spending and a military conflict would have grave consequences on the economic front for both nations. And therefore it would be in the interest of both the countries to cooperate with each other in mutually beneficial endeavours and ensure that the potential for conflict is minimised.``

Thus, it is not China but the ``China-Pak bonhomie`` which should be a matter of grave concern for us. The transfer of Chinese missile technology to Pakistan,  and the rejection of India`s  request to declare Masood Azhar a terrorist and are worrisome.

The Pakistani President visits China more frequently than we visit our hometowns. Asif Zardari was in China on a four-day trip recently, his third visit in less than a year since he became the President of the country on September 9 last year.

I do not understand the need for these regular visits; something is scheming here.

Also read: 'Nervous China may attack India by 2012'  | China to attack India `only if provoked`


Dr Yukteshwar Kumar is Course Director of Chinese Stream at University of Bath, United Kingdom. Before joining University of Bath, Dr. Kumar taught at premier Indian universities like University of Delhi, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and JNU in different capacities. He has also served as a Nehru Fellow at Peking University, China (1999-2001). Probably the only Indian today to teach Chinese in a top western University,  Dr. Kumar has also interpreted for top Chinese and Indian leaders including the Chief Justices of India and China, the Foreign Minister of China, and the Chief Ministers of Bihar and West Bengal. He has also contributed numerous articles in both Chinese and English for various English and Chinese papers and journals and is the co-author of a book on learning Chinese.