The volume of enemy shrieks is directly proportional to the pain inflicted on him. Going by Beijing’s reactions to New Delhi’s decision to restrict economic ties with China, including curbs on foreign direct investment (FDI), it looks like the dragon is feeling the heat.
First, it instigated Nepal to take a tough stand against us. Now, CCP is incensed that Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarians Meenakshi Lekhi and Rahul Kaswan ‘virtually attended’ the swearing-in ceremony of Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and sent her congratulations.
As a report in India Narrative (<a href="https://indianarrative.com/world/outraged-china-asks-india-to-refrain-from-supporting-taiwan-2348.html">https://indianarrative.com/world/outraged-china-asks-india-to-refrain-from-supporting-taiwan-2348.html</a>) said, “Outraged by the subtle support that the ruling BJP extended to the democratically elected government of Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has asked India to ‘refrain from such acts’.” Tsai was sworn in for her second term.
India has not made anti-China statements in the recent past but it has acted decisively. In a bid to preclude “opportunistic takeovers” of domestic companies by foreign players, New Delhi imposed restrictions on FDI from the countries country that share a land border with India.
While Pakistan Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, and Nepal also share border with India, little FDI emanates from there. China was clearly the target of the restrictions.
The restrictions came in the wake of the People’s Bank of China—the Chinese central bank—picking up about 1 per cent equity in HDFC Bank, one of largest private Indian banks.
China protested vehemently against the new restrictions, citing World Trade Organization’s free trade rules. The CCP bosses want a rule-based international order—so long as it supports their interests. When it doesn’t, they trash it without any compunctions.
So, when in July 2016, a five-judge tribunal of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a unanimous award in favor of the Philippines and against China in a case pertaining to maritime entitlements and the status of features in the South China Sea, Beijing simply refused to comply. Its Foreign Ministry claimed that the tribunal’s award “is null and void and has no binding force.”
In a statement, it said, “China neither accepts nor recognizes it.”
But China accepts and recognizes the WTO—and will continue to do so till the international body comes up with something the CCP finds offensive.
Apart from BJP MPs Lekhi and Kaswan, there were 90 dignitaries from 41 nations across the world, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It would have been better if more parliamentarians, especially from non-BJP parties, had also virtually attended the ceremony, but even this move—which obviously had the approval of the Narendra Modi government—is very bold.
A tough stand against China, which is the world’s largest and most powerful rogue state, is the need of the hour. It is in the interest of mankind. For China engages in every activity that are anathema to liberal democracies—brutal suppression of democratic movements (Hong Kong), unspeakable atrocities against ethnic and religious minorities (Tibetans, Uyghurs), geographical expansionism, proliferation of nuclear weapons and missiles, deliberately spreading the coronavirus (<a href="https://indianarrative.com/world/xi-tedros-should-be-tried-for-crime-against-humanity-2325.html">https://indianarrative.com/world/xi-tedros-should-be-tried-for-crime-against-humanity-2325.html</a>), trade in human organs, shielding terrorists and terror states (Hafiz Saeed and Pakistan).
Which is not surprising, for China is ruled by the practitioners of the most violent ideology mankind has every suffered—communism.
India has to persist with its anti-China stand and not let the America-hating Nehruvians in the system to intervene in this matter..
