Will Nancy Pelosi also stand up to aggressive behaviour of China towards Tibet?

By NS Venkataraman* 
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, has done significant service towards the cause of global struggle and fight against aggression by one country against the other, by defying China and visiting Taiwan. In effect, she has shown China it’s place, as China has in recent years become very aggressive by claiming the territory of other countries and threatening them.
China claims that Taiwan should not be an independent country and should be part of China. If one would look historically, it can be seen that Taiwan has equally or even more claims on mainland China being part of it, since communists in China in an internal war against the then existing regime , succeeded in occupying the entire China other than Taiwan by force. It was a war where one side namely communists decisively won and the other side namely the then regime was left to lick it’s wound and keeping only Taiwan in it’s hold. In such circumstances, China claiming Taiwan should be part of mainland China is totally wrong and unjustifiable and the claim has no legitimate basis.
In any case, Chinese government seems to think that it has the economic and military power to overrun Taiwan and occupying it by force. This approach of China is what Nancy Pelosi is opposing. This also indicates as to why China is so angry about the visit of Nancy Pelosi , reacting to her visit in a manner out of proportion.
In the last two decades, China has been claiming not only Taiwan as it’s own but also several other regions.
In India, it is occupying thousands of acres of land belonging to India in Ladakh and nearby regions, which China occupied by force in a war against India in 1962, when India was not militarily strong. China now claims that Arunachal Pradesh, a province in India, belong to China and protests whenever some international event or dignitaries from abroad visit Arunachal Pradesh.
In the early sixties, China carried out aggression against Tibet claiming Tibet is part of China. China massacred thousands of protesting Tibetans and is now ruling the Tibet region by force with vice like grip. China does not even permit any overseas visitors to visit Tibet and see the conditions there for themselves, as China has more to conceal than to reveal in Tibet.
China now claims that South China Sea and Senkaku island also belong to it and these claims are being opposed by Japan, Philippines, Vietnam and others.
It is very obvious now that the present rulers in China believe in force and violence to satisfy their greed and achieve their objectives of territorial expansion and global domination.
Apart from claiming regions such as Taiwan, China is systematically overpowering several economically weak countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and others , by extending huge loan with high interest rate which these economically weak countries cannot repay at any time soon. With cleverly and mischievously planned OBOR scheme, China has brought several weak countries under it’s control in one form or the other. Many observers think that Pakistan has now become virtually an extended territory of China, due to OBOR scheme being implemented by China in Pakistan.
The world should realise that China has ambitions for territorial expansion and is not concerned about the means adopted.
When China occupied Tibet, there was no any meaningful protests from other countries and there was only deafening silence, which had made China conclude that aggression and force would pay and the world opinion on any issue would be impotent.
It is good that Nancy Pelosi has stood upto China in the case of supporting Taiwan,which has lot of significance in discouraging aggression by one country against the other.
Her campaign against aggressive approach of China would be complete only if she would take the cause of Tibet also, which has been wronged not only by China with it’s brutal force but also by entire world, which remained virtually silent without condemning China effectively..
Pelosi will emerge as conscience keeper of the world, if she would continue to stand up to the aggressive behaviour of China in Tibet and extend her support to the cause of Tibet and fight for Tibet’s freedom with courage of conviction that she seems to be capable of.
---
*Trustee, Nandini Voice For The Deprived, Chennai