September 6:
Jayadeva Ranade, former head of India’s intelligence mission in Beijing, has warned against opening strategic sectors like telecom, railway signaling and cyberspace to Chinese companies. Ranade, a former official at Research and Analysis Wing – India’s primary foreign intelligence agency – said New Delhi should take strategic sectors off the table before beginning any investment negotiations. Beijing has informed New Delhi that it is willing to commit about $100 billion in investment, a huge amount compared to $34 billion proffered by Japan this month. Projects open to Chinese investment include upgrading India’s railways, the construction of a special economic zone, and the building of car manufacturing facilities. China is also pushing to expand educational exchange programs and announced the first university scholarships for Indians last year, DNA India reports.
September 9:
Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to India later this month Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took a tough line saying: “For India to agree to a one-China policy, China should reaffirm a one-India policy. When they raised with us the issue of Tibet and Taiwan, we shared their sensitivities. So, we want they should [sic] understand and appreciate our sensitivities regarding Arunachal Pradesh.” India has refused to endorse the “one-China” policy since 2010, removing it from a joint statement during former premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to New Delhi that year, the Times of India reports. While in Japan earlier this month Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, in a thinly veiled reference to China: “There are 18th century-style ways and thinking that involve expanding by taking away the land of another nation and going into seas.”
Despite China’s increasingly frequent incursions across the border and a “massive disparity in road and telecom infrastructure vis-à-vis China,” the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have not been allowed to procure new equipment and vehicles for three years. Upon his first visit to ITBP headquarters, India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh was told that the paramilitary force was short 500 vehicles, India’s Economic Timesreports. Over the last four years 13 battalions were raised and 54 new border outposts built, but no new vehicles were purchased. Singh’s visit follows one MoS Home Kiren Rijiju made ten days ago to Ladakh to assess the border situation. According to New Delhi there have been nearly 400 incursions by Chinese troops this year.
September 11:
Beijing has launched a campaign to host the 2022 Winter Olympics including deep-pocketed sponsors, a new logo, and a promotional film by acclaimed director Zhang Yimou. Beijing’s 2022 logo combines the Chinese character for winter with different sports. With the official decision still a year away, the Washington Post reports that only Kazakhstan and Norway remain as rival candidates. Beijing hopes to divide events among three locations – with ice sports in the capital, luge and bobsled events in mountains 55 miles away, and skiing events held 136 miles away in Zhangjiakou. But human rights advocates are concerned, arguing that rather than improving human rights, the 2008 Beijing Games’ success “helped the regime to become more confident to do things its own way,” said Xu Guoqi of the University of Hong Kong.
September 12:
“The title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has said, adding that when the 14th Dalai Lama dies, China will follow “set religious procedure and historic custom” to name his successor, theChristian Science Monitor reports. The comments come in response to statements by the exiled Dalai Lama: “If a weak Dalai Lama comes along, it will just disgrace the Dalai Lama.” He made it clear that he would not be reborn in Tibet if Tibet was not free. By signaling a possible end to his lineage, “the Dalai Lama is trying to avoid a situation where China controls his successor,” said Elliot Sperling at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. If Beijing-backed lamas in Tibet name one boy as the Dalai Lama’s incarnation, and exiled lamas in India named another, “things could get very ugly, very fast and there would be no 14th Dalai Lama there, preaching nonviolence,” warned Martin Mills at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
[Editor’s Note: In 1995, when the Dalai Lama chose a young boy to be the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, the child and his family were immediately disappeared by Chinese security forces. Beijing named another boy as the Panchen Lama, but he lives in Beijing he has never won the loyalty of Tibetans. In 2007, Beijing issued “Management Measures for the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism” which declared its control over the reincarnation process.]