World's second largest economy, it's necessary for China to talk peace now to preserve global market share

By NS Venkataraman

In recent times, the Chinese Foreign Minister has repeatedly asserted on various occasions that China is a peace-loving country and that it would do its utmost to maintain global peace, even in the present chaotic conditions. According to him, China vows to uphold stability amidst geopolitical turbulence. At one time, it offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and now it has offered to mediate between Russia and the USA!

Those who have been observing China’s various actions over the last several decades would find it extremely difficult to believe that the Chinese government is truly peace-loving.

No one can forget the onslaught made by China against peaceful Tibet several decades ago, when thousands of innocent, protesting Tibetans were massacred. China has since governed the Tibetan region with a vice-like grip. It has thoroughly uprooted traditional Tibetan culture and practices, and Tibet is now no longer what it was several decades ago.

China waged war against India in 1962 and is now holding thousands of kilometres of Indian territory, claiming that it is part of China. China also now claims that Arunachal Pradesh in India belongs to it.

China has approved the construction of the world's largest hydropower dam—a $137-billion project—on the Yarlung Zangbo River (Brahmaputra) in Tibet, raising serious concerns in India and Bangladesh about potential environmental and water resource impacts. China does not care about the concerns expressed by India and Bangladesh regarding this proposal. In recent years, there have been many instances where China has engaged in military conflict with India along the Indo-China border and has been blowing hot and cold when it comes to relations with India.

China is now creating issues with the Philippines in the South China Sea, often resulting in confrontations. It also has disputes with Japan regarding the Senkaku Islands and with Vietnam as well.

The Chinese military has now warned of tightening the noose around Taiwan and has not concealed its ambition to take over the island. China has been constantly threatening Taiwan through several aggressive military postures around it.

Taiwan was created as a separate state following China’s internal war several decades ago, which resulted in the country being split. If mainland China claims Taiwan as its own, then by the same logic, Taiwan could also claim that mainland China belongs to it.

China’s expansionist greed and its frequent indulgence in conflicts and quarrels with its neighbours are now well known. Therefore, China’s claim that it is committed to world peace is hard to believe. Many may feel it is like the devil quoting scripture.

There is no doubt that China has made remarkable economic and industrial progress over the last few decades. It now has the second-largest economy in the world, after the USA. China depends heavily on the rest of the world for its trade, and it is, therefore, necessary for China to talk about peace to ensure that its global market share is not challenged—particularly with the US President threatening to impose tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the USA. The American market is too important for China to forego, and so peace talk is now in China’s interest.

However, as China continues to make aggressive postures toward its neighbours and attempts to browbeat smaller countries by making them debt-ridden and forcing them to open their markets to Chinese goods, it is difficult to believe that China’s commitment to global peace is genuine.

In the present scenario, the only thing that can be said in favour of China regarding its claims of commitment to peace is that other powerful countries in the world, such as the USA and Russia, also claim that they are peace-loving. It appears that China, the USA, and Russia are all in the same slot when it comes to their claims of being champions of peace! Their assertions about peace sound hollow and insincere, and discerning people across the world can see through them.

---

*Trustee, Nandini Voice for the Deprived, Chennai

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog