In my analysis, the ‘Invitation’ asking this Refugee to return to China simply represents an Agreement to accept imprisonment rather than living the life of a Slave in the host nation. It is like choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
I claim that I am a ‘Refugee’ for I host ‘The Living Tibetan Spirits’ in my Consciousness. Living Tibetan Spirits represent the young Tibetan Soldiers who gave their precious lives during the Bangladesh Ops of 1971-72. They live in the hope of securing Freedom in Occupied Tibet.
Refugee is a person who is not entitled to the benefits of the Citizenship status in the country that hosts the Refugee. Very often, the Refugee Status may impose several conditions or terms under which it is approved. A Refugee can be deemed to be a ‘Slave’ if the Refugee has only the permission to live in bondage performing labor to earn his living. For example, the Refugee or Slave or Serf or Servant is not entitled to receive monetary benefits paid to citizens if they get old or disabled.
In my analysis, the ‘Invitation’ asking this Refugee to return to China simply represents an Agreement to accept imprisonment rather than living the life of a Slave in the host nation. It is like choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
In my analysis, the ‘Invitation’ asking this Refugee to return to China simply represents an Agreement to accept imprisonment rather than living the life of a Slave on in Bondage in the host nation. It is like choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
In my analysis, the ‘Invitation’ asking this Refugee to return to China simply represents an Agreement to accept imprisonment rather than living the life of a Slave in the host nation. It is like choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
In my analysis, the ‘Invitation’ asking this Refugee to return to China simply represents an Agreement to accept imprisonment rather than living the life of a Slave in the host nation. It is like choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
Give up: The Dalai Lama has been asked to ‘relinquish all attachment to life’ and ‘live among Tibetans even though it may seem humbling. In my analysis, the ‘Invitation’ asking this Refugee to return to China simply represents an Agreement to accept imprisonment rather than living the life of bondage in the host nation. It is like choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
JAYADEVA RANADE President, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy
In the midst of mounting pressure from the US and steadily growing dissatisfaction with Chinese President Xi Jinping inside China, Beijing appears to be making a strategic overture to the exiled 84-year-old spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama. This coincides with the increasing apprehension in the higher echelons of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that the US and the West plan to resume support to the Tibetans and stir up trouble in China’s Tibetan-majority border province. It coincides, too, with the persistent rumor that has been circulating for months in Beijing that the Dalai Lama is rather unwell.
The first indicator of renewed thinking about reaching out to the Dalai Lama was an article authored by Zhu Weiqun and published on June 9 in the Global Times, a subsidiary of the official CCP mouthpiece, People’s Daily. Zhu is a senior recently retired Chinese Communist cadre who has stayed in close touch with Tibetan affairs and is well regarded in Beijing for his knowledge of Tibet-related affairs. The article assumes added significance as Zhu is a former executive vice-minister of the CCP Central Committee’s (CC) united front work department and till last year held a national-level post as chairman of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He has participated in all 10 rounds of the ‘negotiations’ between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese communist authorities between 2002 and 2010, when they were suspended, and has intimate knowledge of the CCP’s position on the Dalai Lama. Zhu seldom writes in the Chinese media.
Quite unusually, he stated in his article that he was responding to the US ambassador’s recent remark after a visit to Tibet, urging resumption of talks with the Dalai Lama and accused him of ‘interference in China’s internal affairs’. He also asserted that the CC ‘has not closed its door of contacts and negotiation with the Dalai Lama’. With this, he indirectly confirms that while contacts have been maintained with the Dalai Lama, negotiations of the type held earlier could now possibly be contemplated. He also reiterated China’s consistent position that it doesn’t recognize the ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ or ‘Central Tibetan Administration’ and that the talks that have been held are neither ‘Tibetan-Han talks’ or ‘Tibetan-China talks’. He clarified that ‘the Dalai Lama must accept Tibet as an integral part of China, abandon all attempts about so-called Tibet independence, stop all separatist and destructive activities, and recognize Taiwan as an integral part of China’. Stating that the above issues ‘underline that there is no so-called Tibet issue’, he underscored it is ‘just the problem of the Dalai Lama’. These points reflected China’s position during the negotiations nine years ago between the Dalai Lama’s envoys and the united front work department that they were only discussing the Dalai Lama’s return to China!
Zhu’s article was followed by a more direct and blunt communication. This was the 680-word letter, published by the Korea Times on June 22, and addressed to the Dalai Lama by the Venerable Dongbong, head monk of the ninth-ranked Daegaksa Temple of the Jogye Order of Buddhism of South Korea. The Jogye Order, incidentally, has thus far not joined other Buddhist sects in requesting permission for the Dalai Lama’s visit to South Korea because of its sensitivity to China. In the unprecedented letter, which is being studied in the Dalai Lama’s office, Dongbong advised him to ‘go back to your Tibetan homeland so your body may be interred there’. Adding that ‘at the age of 83, Your Holiness has lived longer than the Buddha’, it asked him to ‘relinquish all attachment to life as the Buddha taught’ and ‘to live among Tibetans is the way you should walk to the end of your life, even though it may seem humbling to you’. During an interview with Korea Times, he said: ‘Time is running against’ the Dalai Lama. ‘If he dies outside his old Tibet home, not being able to reach his people and hold their hands, his death will be the death of a great religious leader and nothing more. It will not bring any difference in Tibetan independence history.’
In the months leading up to these overtures to the Dalai Lama, the Chinese communist authorities have stepped up security measures in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and adjoining Tibetan areas. The annual budget of the TAR’s public security apparatus was enhanced by the National People’s Congress in March 2019 by 8.3 per cent. Party surveillance has been expanded with a party cadre presently deployed in each of the 5,453 villages and a distinct focus on ‘political education’ and propaganda, especially among monks and nuns in monasteries. The concerns of the senior party echelons were articulated late last year by Wu Sikang, director of the policy research office of Shenzhen municipal government, in an ‘internal’ document. He warned that the US had increased financial aid to Tibetans from this year to $17 million and that the amount allocated for Tibet-related activities in India and Nepal have been doubled. Beijing has long apprehended that Nepal would be used by ‘hostile foreign powers’ as a launch pad for anti-China activities.
A positive response to these overtures by the Dalai Lama would bring some relief for Jinping from the pressure being exerted by the US, troubles in Hong Kong and spreading domestic dissatisfaction. Tibet has long been portrayed as one of China’s ‘core issues’ and Jinping would be able to claim a degree of success in achieving the ‘reunification of the great Chinese nation’ projected in the China Dream. The question is, what can the Dalai Lama hope to get if he returns?
In my analysis, the ‘Invitation’ asking this Refugee to return to China simply represents an Agreement to accept imprisonment rather than living the life of a Slave in the host nation. It is like choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
Old Flames Never Die – The Moments Slip Away Laid into Account
Old Flames Never Die. The Moments Slip Away Laid into Account – The Living Tibetan Spirits
The Living Tibetan Spirits inhabit my consciousness. The Moments Slip Away Laid into Account. For my Memory lives, I claim, “Old Flames Never Die.”
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment
September 22. This Day in History. My Quest for Freedom traps me in Slavery. My Journey to Chakrata and Beyond.
‘Tibet with My Eyes Closed’ captures the stories of a region that is at the risk of being forgotten TNN
Old Flames Never Die. The Moments Slip Away Laid into Account.
In the past century, Tibet has been damaged irreparably. Ever since China took over Tibet and began instating their harsh rule on the Tibetan people, many escaped to India seeking refuge. Though they have settled, they often still remember and long for their motherland. “Unfortunately, they can only see a free Tibet in their mind and memories. And it was this sentiment that inspired me to write the book because many Tibetans can only see Tibet with their eyes closed,” said author Madhu Gurung during the launch of her book Tibet with My Eyes Closed in Delhi on July 25.
The book is a compilation of vivid and deeply emotional short stories on Tibetan people. Inspired by the colors of the vibrant Tibetan prayer flag, the author divided the stories into five colors and the elements they represent. The book was launched amidst an eye-opening discussion. The chief guest for the evening was Ven Geshe Dorji Damdul, the director of Tibet House, the Cultural Centre for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After the ceremonious release of the book, the renowned guest graced the event by explaining the historical importance of the Indo-Tibetan relationship.
“Tibet was more like a barren place, and if not too presumptuous, barbaric. With the advent of Indian culture and philosophy, a beautiful culture of compassion grounded in wisdom started to take root in Tibet, and then it became such a beautiful nation,” said Ven Geshe Dorji Damdul. He has a PhD in Buddhist Philosophy and has even learned Tantric Studies, which is probably why he understands the connection between the cultural philosophies of both the countries so well.
Praising the book, he said, “Reading it, I felt it so close to my heart. And all the readers will also relate to the feelings and thoughts of the Tibetan people. I was so affected by this book. I really congratulate Madhu Gurung Ji and am very grateful for giving me the honor of coming here and speaking.”
The author Madhu Gurung started writing as a freelance journalist. She has worked for BBC World Service Trust, Oxfam, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was the Media Adviser for the National AIDS Control Organization. She has written a book previously. Titled The Keeper of Memories, the book is on Gorkhas and was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhat First Book Award.
She explained how she came to interact with the Tibetans while writing an article on them. Some of their stories stayed with her. So, when she was done with her first book and the article was published, she was inspired to write this book.
“When I started meeting people, there was this underlying thread, this deep yearning. It was like a wound that they carried of losing a homeland, of trying to start a new life. The wound heals over a period but a scab forms over it. And at the slightest remembrance of home, it bleeds and there is nothing that can stop it,” she said.
Her passion for the plight of the Tibetans was evident throughout the talk. Dates of politically significant events and small details of people’s lives rolled off her tongue as if she was talking of her own past when she answered questions.
Madhu Gurung was in conversation with author Preeti Gill, who is best known for her work in documentaries like Rambuai: Mizoram’s ‘Trouble’ Years. She had read Tibet with My Eyes Closed and praised the book saying, ” I think it’s a really unusual collection of stories and right from the time when I read the first story, I was completely enamored”
Preeti Gill grew up in Mussorie, and the school that she attended had Tibetan students too. So, she is familiar with the issues Tibetans are facing and their stories, and she was happy to see it highlighted.
A lot of details on the lives of Tibetans was revealed in their fascinating exchange. The author was careful to avoid spoilers but while describing her favorite stories, she gave context and background of the tales. Most stories are true and are taken from someone she has spoken to. “But when people talk about their lives, they never talk the way you want to write them. They just tell you; they compress the years of their lives into few sentences and everything that you get is like the tip of a mountain. The rest of the mountain is down and so what I did was that I started doing a lot of research. I started reading about Tibet and I was fascinated by the 2100-year-old Tibetan history, it’s myths, culture and the way that life was. And all of that is interwoven into the stories and I have used my imagination to create conversations and situations. Yes, it is true.”
The stories she told were so fascinating that the pile of books at the event emptied quickly and had to be hurriedly restocked to meet the demand. Everyone left the event a little more in awe of the perseverance of the Tibetan spirit.
The Living Tibetan Spirits inhabit my consciousness. The Moments Slip Away Laid into Account. For my Memory lives, I claim, “Old Flames Never Die.”The Living Tibetan Spirits inhabit my consciousness. The Moments Slip Away Laid into Account. For my Memory lives, I claim, “Old Flames Never Die.”
A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT.
Tibetans need lessons in patience and perseverance to keep their lives while the World struggles to find ways to keep China away. What can’t be cured must endured. China’s Occupation is not permanent. I am hopeful that a cure can be discovered to treat the sickness called ‘Trouble in Tibet’ caused by ‘China in Tibet’. The following are some of the lessons taught by the Supreme Ruler of Tibet:
Nothing is Permanent
Keep Smiling
Love and Compassion will restore Peace
Judge your Success by what you give up to regain your Freedom
Start your Struggle now without expecting that you may win.
What you can’t get by your Struggle may come as a Stroke of Luck
Keep your Peace and be Kind to your Family and Friends
Keep your Unity and do not let disputes weaken your Community
Keep control on your Mind to defeat the Enemy who controls your Body
You and the Enemy have the same human potential, you just need the Will Power to change things
Money and Power are not sufficient, you need a Heart to win the Struggle
You have to show Compassion to uplift yourself and Struggle to uplift others from their Misery
The Selfish Desire to seek Freedom from Enemy is indeed Wise
Remember that Mighty Empires have Fallen because of the bites of tiny Mosquito
In your Struggle against your Enemy, the Enemy is your Best Teacher.
When you Struggle, Look at the Positive side. Your Enemy will not live forever.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment
TIMELESS LIFE LESSONS FROM THE DALAI LAMA
A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT.
The Dalai Lama is a monk of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” School of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest of the Schools of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa. The 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.
A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT. KEEP SMILING.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT.. LOVE AND COMPASSION WILL EVICT CHINA FROM TIBET TO RESTORE WORLD PEACE.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT. FREEDOM DEMANDS STRUGGLE AND SACRIFICE.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT. START YOUR FIGHT NOW EVEN IF YOU CAN’T WIN THE BATTLE DURING YOUR LIFETIME.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? KEEP PRAYING. MIRACLES WILL HAPPEN.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT. KEEP PRAYING, MIRACLES WILL HAPPEN.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? FIRST SECURE FREEDOM OF YOUR OWN MIND TO FIGHT ENEMY WHO OCCUPIES YOUR MIND.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? TIBETANS HAVE SAME HUMAN POTENTIAL LIKE ALL OTHERS. HAVE WILL POWER TO DEFEAT YOUR ENEMY.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT. LOVE YOURSELF TO LOVE OTHER TIBETANS SUFFERING UNDER OCCUPATION. A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT. IT IS NOT SELFISH TO DEMAND FREEDOM FROM OCCUPATION.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? APART FROM MONEY AND PHYSICAL POWER, YOU NEED A STRONG HEART TO CURE THE TROUBLE IN TIBET. A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? CHINA’S OCCUPATION IS NOT PERMANENT. MIGHTY ARMIES OF ANCIENT ROME WERE VANQUISHED BY TINY MOSQUITO BITES.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? LEARN FROM YOUR ENEMY THE ART OF WARFARE. KNOW ENEMY’S MIND.A LESSON FOR LIFE – HOW TO KEEP CHINA AWAY? MAKE THE EFFORT TO WIN BACK YOUR FREEDOM. NO ENEMY WILL LAST FOREVER.
Tibet Equilibrium – The Future of the Evil Power in Occupied Tibet
THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET – I SHARE THE PROPHECY OF BEIJING’S DOOM.TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER – THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER. DOOMSAYER OF DOOM DOOMA SHARES PROPHECY OF ISAIAH 47:10 & 11.
Red China wants to sustain her military occupation of Tibet by controlling and manipulating Tibetan cultural practices that play a role in the selection of the next Dalai Lama. In my analysis, the future of Red China’s Evil Power is already decided by prophecy shared by Prophet Isaiah in The Old Testament Book, Isaiah, Chapter 47, verses 10 and 11:
“You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none beside me.’
Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.”
At Special Frontier Force, I am known as ‘Doomsayer of Doom Dooma’ for I predict Beijing’s Doom. There is no one to save Red China when this catastrophe suddenly comes upon her.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
BROWN POLITICAL REVIEW
RULE BY REINCARNATION : CHINA AND THE NEXT DALAI LAMA
BY MILI MITRA, NOVEMBER 1, 2015
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER – FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER. RED CHINA WANTS TO PERPETUATE HER RULE OVER TIBET BY CONTROLLING AND MANIPULATION REINCARNATION OF DALAI LAMA. BEIJING IS DOOMED FOR HER INTENTIONS ARE EVIL.
In the last decade, China has become a juggernaut in international politics. It is undoubtedly the dominant force in Asia and faces scant challenge from other regional powers. However, Beijing still faces internal opposition from dissidents, especially in Xinjiang Province and Tibet. The autonomous region of Tibet in particular is known for its robust and lasting resistance to Chinese rule. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has attempted to control the region since 1951. Now, China’s most recent efforts have taken an unexpected form: They are relying on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Beijing seems to subscribe to the belief that a more cooperative Dalai Lama would help undercut Tibetan opposition and gain hegemony over the region. Needless to say, this plan is as unrealistic as it is absurd.
Beijing’s historical relationship with Tibet is conflicted and troubled. Tibet was incorporated into CCP-led China in 1951. CCP leader Mao Zedong wished to unite China after a turbulent century of weak Qing emperors, feuding warlords and the Japanese invasion. In October 1950, the Chinese army crossed into Tibet and defeated its Tibetan counterparts. Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, sent representatives to Beijing to negotiate, leading to the signing of the 17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet. The pact made Tibet a part of China but gave it a measure of autonomy. There was some oversight from the national government, but the Tibetan government had more power than any other provincial government.
The Tibetan aristocracy and government were funded in part by China. The CCP also funded the development of infrastructure and organized land reforms. It seemed to be a mutually beneficial treaty, but many of these advantages failed to materialize for Tibet due to Chinese duplicity. Despite these promises, the CCP remained uncomfortable with Tibet’s partial autonomy and unique cultural heritage. Chinese leaders feared that Tibetan spirituality — and indeed, loyalty to the Dalai Lama — would undermine their own power. They endeavored to dilute the local culture, a process now known as the “Sinicization of Tibet.” Rituals and traditions are integral to Tibetan society, but the Chinese government worked to suppress local festivals and religious customs.
To counter the dominance of Tibetan Buddhists in the region, Beijing also sent thousands of Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the country, to intermarry with Tibetans. As one would expect, these decisions only exacerbated cultural tensions. Overall, the CCP’s overbearing attempts to control Tibet won them few supporters and antagonized the majority of the local population. Ultimately, the Tibetan people tired of these oppressive tactics and launched the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. The rebellion failed, resulting in at least 10,000 deaths and the exile of the Dalai Lama to northern India.
Ever since, China’s rule in Tibet has been fraught with instability and local opposition. The Chinese government has tried a variety of tactics to win Tibetan support but has finally come to the conclusion that it needs the support of the Dalai Lama. And since it can’t win the approval of the current Dalai Lama, it wants to collaborate with his next incarnation. This plan may sound far-fetched, but China’s schemes are based on a shrewd — if misguided — premise. Beijing has long realized that the Dalai Lama holds an unparalleled sway over the Tibetan people, even in exile. His influence as a spiritual and political leader cannot be overstated. The current Dalai Lama would never agree to cooperate with Beijing; he has long demanded Tibetan independence and is a figurehead for dissidents in the region. Even in exile, the Dalai Lama is an omnipresent figure in the Tibetan cultural and political consciousness. But as he ages, the Chinese government believes his successor might be more compliant.
Since China can’t win the approval of this Dalai Lama, they want to collaborate with his next incarnation.
In fact, China is reluctant to leave this to chance. The boy selected to be the next Dalai Lama will be reared in Tibetan Buddhist traditions and will likely feel the same way as the present Dalai Lama. To ensure that the next spiritual leader will align with its goals, Beijing wishes to oversee the selection process; in other words, it wants to select a Dalai Lama more sympathetic to its goals. In a morbid twist, it sees the Dalai Lama’s passing as an opportunity to instate a puppet leader, a figurehead who would be raised in Beijing and taught to adhere to the party line.
The process to identify the next Dalai Lama is complex and intriguing. A group of senior monks, called High Lamas of the Gelugpa tradition, and the Tibetan government are responsible for identifying their next spiritual leader. The search begins with the High Lamas interpreting their dreams or visions. If the previous Dalai Lama was cremated, as is generally the case, the smoke from his cremation might indicate the direction in which they should look. They then use these signals to find boys born around the time of death of the previous leader. The boys are then asked to identify objects that belonged to the former Dalai Lama. If several boys are found who satisfy the conditions, as is typically the case, they consult the servants of the former Dalai Lama. In the rare case when there are still multiple boys that pass all these tests, they place the names in an urn and hold a public draw.
The Dalai Lama — along with the majority of Tibetans — believes that Beijing’s involvement in the selection process would undermine the sanctity of the religion and lead to further conflict. This is substantiated by a similar case in 1995: the selection of the Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama is the second highest ranking in Tibetan Buddhism and is “found” in much the same way as the Dalai Lama. The committee of high monks had selected a candidate, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and the Dalai Lama endorsed their decision. However, the Chinese government insisted on holding a draw after which Gyaincain Norbu was chosen as the 11th Panchen Lama. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was immediately taken away by Chinese officials and has been missing ever since. Tibetans were horrified by the Chinese ploy and have refused to accept Gyaincain Norbu as the Panchen Lama. There are still calls from the international community to free Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, but China has disregarded these requests. As a result of Chinese intervention, Tibet’s “true” Panchen Lama has not been seen in over 20 years.
Perhaps with an eye on the past, the current Dalai Lama once again chose to defy the Chinese government. He has announced that he will consider whether he will reincarnate and continue the tradition in 2024. As he told the BBC, he would rather have no Dalai Lama than a “stupid” one. He went on to explain that it might be better to dissolve the influential position rather than to wait for a future Dalai Lama who could “disgrace” himself. His comments imply that he is aware of the prospect of Chinese intervention in selecting his successor and is reluctant to leave his legacy in such hands. He also acknowledged that his role might become less relevant in time. In response, Beijing has hit out at his statements, claiming his attitude was “frivolous.” Not one to shy away from a war of words, the Dalai Lama pointed out, “Chinese officials [seem] more concerned with the future Dalai Lama than me.” The Chinese government’s fixation with the next Dalai Lama is certainly questionable, but it is wrong to assume that the Dalai Lama has not given the matter much thought. He is a shrewd political player and knows how to bring out the worst in the Communist Party. There are several possible motivations behind the Dalai Lama weighing whether or not to reincarnate. Some see it as a means of ensuring the position’s prestige and spiritual authority is not tainted by dirty politics. Others, including Jia Xiudong of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, believe he is “playing a political game.” They see his announcement as a way to put pressure on China and ensure that it respects Tibetan traditions and autonomy.
Nonetheless, the Chinese government has emerged from this episode looking ridiculous — a common outcome in their dealings with the Dalai Lama. Regardless of whether the Dalai Lama decides to reincarnate or not, it will be interesting to see how the Free Tibet movement — and indeed, Tibet-China relations — progresses without the Dalai Lama leading the international conversation. Despite his apparent humility, he has shaped Tibetan identity over the last half-century and has become virtually synonymous with the Free Tibet movement. His passing would leave a power vacuum in Tibetan politics for at least a decade, simultaneously making the region more vulnerable to Chinese influence and more volatile to shocks and triggers.
If Beijing wants to maintain regional peace, it should tread very carefully in its positions with the current and future Dalai Lama. A senior Obama Administration official predicted that this process of transition would be reminiscent of the Avignon Papacy, a period of conflict between different Catholic authorities that almost destabilized all of Europe in the fourteenth century. If Beijing intervenes and selects its own candidate, it will likely cause widespread dissent and conflict in Tibet. The Tibetan people are wary of Chinese involvement and will distrust any decision in which Beijing has the upper hand. The Communist Party might believe that they would reduce hostility by choosing a cooperative Dalai Lama, but their intrusion could quite well incite outright rebellion. Either way, the selection of the next Dalai Lama, if it takes place at all, will undoubtedly be a dramatic turning point in Tibetan history. All we can do is wait and watch as the spectacle unfolds.
Copyright 2015 Brown Political Review
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER – FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER. BEIJING IS DOOMED. NO ONE INCLUDING THE NEXT DALAI LAMA CAN SAVE RED CHINA.TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER – FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER. BEIJING IS DOOMED. BODHISATTVA AVALOKITESVARA IS UNWILLING TO SAVE RED CHINA FOR SHE IS EVIL.Tibet Consciousness – Red China Slays Tibet with the Sword – Red China Must be Killed with the Sword. No Exceptions to the Golden Rule – The Book of Revelation 13:10THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET – I SHARE THE PROPHECY OF BEIJING’S DOOM.THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET – I SHARE THE PROPHECY OF BEIJING’S DOOM.THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET – I SHARE THE PROPHECY OF BEIJING’S DOOM.THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EVIL POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET – I SHARE THE PROPHECY OF BEIJING’S DOOM.
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. THE GREAT TIBET PROBLEM WILL EXIST UNTIL THE BALANCE OF POWER IS RESTORED IN OCCUPIED TIBET.TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET. US PRESIDENT DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER WITH INDIAN PRESIDENT DR BABU RAJENDRA PRASAD AT RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN, NEW DELHI. TIBET, INDIA, AND THE US WORK TOGETHER TO RESTORE BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. PHOTO TAKEN IN DECEMBER 1959.
Balance of Power refers to the distribution of military and economic power among nations that is sufficiently even to keep any one of them from being too strong or dangerous. The term ‘Balance’ describes a state of equilibrium or equipoise, equality in power between two nations. Red China’s economic and military power is far greater than power of Tibet and hence there is no equilibrium in Tibet. Red China’s overwhelming economic and military power has serious consequences to all nations in her neighborhood. To restore this Balance of Power, Tibet has willingly joined a larger group by allying with India, and the United States. Special Frontier Force is a military organization that represents Tibet’s alliance with India and USA. While Red China demands “stability” in Occupied Tibet, Tibet and the alliance partners reject Red China’s demand for it will not resolve the problem of Balance of Power. To the same extent, Red China has rejected Tibet’s demand for meaningful autonomy or “Middle Way” as a means to restore Tibet Equilibrium.
Most of my readers know that CIA takes orders from the Executive Branch of Power called US Presidency. The other two branches of Power are known as the US Congress (Legislative Power) and the US Supreme Court (Judicial Power) and the Balance of Power between these three branches is maintained by the US Constitution. CIA has no external source of funding for its activities. The US Congress approves National Budget for funding requests submitted by the Executive Branch. Hotel Mount Annapurna in Nepal that supported CIA operation, was funded by US President Richard M Nixon and American citizens, the taxpayers who provide funds to the Government for further use as allocated by a Budget plan duly approved by representatives of elected by people and signed into a Law by the US President. I categorically affirm that all CIA operations to help Tibetan freedom fighters are funded by the US Congress and Budget Laws signed by the US President. I thank US President Dwight David Eisenhower and the US Congress for supporting Tibetan Resistance Movement to counteract Red China’s Evil Power.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
The CIA’s Secret Himalayan Hotel for Tibetan Guerillas
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET. I THANK US PRESIDENT DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER AND THE US CONGRESS FOR THEIR SUPPORT TO RESTORE BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. Photo. Nolan Peterson. The Daily Signal.
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET. HOTEL MOUNT ANNAPURNA IN NEPAL OPENED IN 1973, WITH FUNDING SANCTIONED BY US PRESIDENT RICHARD M NIXON.
The Hotel Mount Annapurna was opened in 1973 as part of a CIA program to rehabilitate former Tibetan guerillas. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
POKHARA, Nepal—It’s been 43 years since the CIA cut off support to the Tibetan guerillas that the agency trained and armed to fight a covert war against China. Yet, a monument to the CIA’s secret war in Tibet is still standing in Pokhara, Nepal.
The former Hotel Mount Annapurna building sits on a quiet side street off the Pokhara airport. Established in 1972 with CIA funds, the hotel was meant to give former Tibetan resistance fighters based in Nepal’s nearby Mustang region a livelihood and a future as they laid down their arms and transitioned to life as refugees.
Tibetan guerillas and their families ran the hotel until it closed in 2010. Today, the Hotel Mount Annapurna building is a nursing school. The aging concrete structure with 1960s lines looks tired and nondescript. Paint is peeling off the exterior walls. The once lush and well manicured landscaping is overgrown and wilted. This relic of the CIA’s secret Cold War guerilla campaign in Tibet is now locked behind a rusting metal gate and easily overlooked. It is in a part of town into which tourists rarely venture.
The area around the Pokhara airport was prime real estate in the 1970s. But business slowly dried up as Pokhara’s tourism center of gravity shifted to the Phewa Lake shoreline to accommodate waves of hippies and trekkers. The Lodrik Welfare Fund—an NGO that former Tibetan resistance fighters created in 1983 to provide welfare for veterans and their families—currently owns the property and rents it out to the Gandaki Medical College.
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET. HOTEL MOUNT ANNAPURNA WAS FUNDED BY US PRESIDENT RICHARD M NIXON in 1973. NOW IS RENTED TO A MEDICAL SCHOOL. Photo. Nolan Peterson. The Daily Signal.
The former hotel is now a nursing school. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
“This used to be the best spot, but we shut down because there was no business,” said Tsultrim Gyatso, chairman of the Lodrik Welfare Fund and former manager of the Hotel Mount Annapurna. His father was a Mustang resistance fighter. Gyatso was born in Pokhara in 1972. He worked at the Hotel Mount Annapurna from 1989 to 2010 and was the hotel’s manager at the time it shut down.
Gyatso currently works next door to the former hotel property out of the same offices that were a command center for the Mustang resistance in the 1960s and 1970s—the office he works in was opened in 1962 for the resistance movement. “My father worked in this very office when he was an intelligence officer for the resistance,” Gyatso said.
OVERLOOKED LEGACY
Today there are few visible clues to the former hotel’s guerilla heritage. In the lobby there is a framed poster of Mt. Kailas (the most holy mountain in Tibet), which is hanging next to a painting of the hotel in its glory days. There is also a painted mural on the wall of the main stairwell, the imagery of which pays homage to the fighting spirit of Tibet’s resistance fighters.
The security guard at the gate offered a confused look when asked about the building’s Cold War history. Younger shop owners on the adjacent street shrugged their shoulders politely and said they knew nothing about Tibetan resistance fighters. A few older shop owners, however, acknowledged the hotel used to be run by “Khampas”—a reference to Tibet’s Kham region, which is known for its warriors and bandits and was the birthplace of Tibet’s guerilla campaign after the 1950 Chinese invasion.
Those who knew about the hotel’s past, however, were reluctant to talk about it. Questions about the CIA and Tibetan resistance movement spurred worried looks and anxious body language. One older shop owner, a Sherpa from the Solukhumbu region near Mt. Everest, offered an explanatory hint when he claimed pressure from Maoist rebels during Nepal’s civil war (1996-2006) forced the hotel to shut down. As proof, he pointed to Maoist graffiti on a wall across from the hotel’s entrance. “They’re bullies,” the old Sherpa said, speaking about Maoist rebels. “And they didn’t get along with the Khampas.”
Maoist rebel graffiti outside the former Hotel Mount Annapurna. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
Gyatso disputes the claim, however, and insists that a struggling bottom line forced the hotel’s closure. “We have a friendly relationship with the Maoists,” Gyatso said. “Some of them stayed in the hotel. I know many old Tibetans think communists are the enemy, but we never had a problem with them.”
Gyatso did acknowledge, however, that Communist labor unions contributed to the hotel’s demise. The hotel initially employed only Tibetans, but pressure from unions spurred the hotel to ultimately employ a mix of Tibetans and Nepalese. At its height, the hotel had about 40 employees. But as business tapered in the 1990s and early 2000s, Gyatso said the unions tied his hands when he tried to streamline staff and cut down on expenses.
“The Unified Marxist-Leninist Party workers union gave us a lot of trouble,” he said. “They demanded a lot and basically put us out of business.”
The Lodrik Welfare Fund is an evolution of the Mustang resistance bureaucracy, which is now dedicated to welfare, not armed insurgency. While the hotel was operational, it generated revenue for the Lodrik Welfare Fund to finance schools and public works for Tibetan refugees around Pokhara and to provide benefits for Tibetan resistance veterans. Now only a thin slice of revenue from the building’s rent goes toward the NGO’s welfare projects. The majority of funding comes from foreign sponsors—many of whom are anonymous Americans.
The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it was still providing any support for the veterans of the Mustang resistance living around Pokhara. But Gyatso said there was no ongoing U.S. government support for the guerilla fighter veterans or their descendants.
“There’s no official U.S. support,” Gyatso said. “But of course the U.S. should help us. They used us to fight China for them and then they dropped us on the spot. They should do something for us.”
NO MORE BAD BLOOD
The CIA began training and arming Tibetan guerillas in 1957. Initially, the Tibetan resistance fighters, called the Chushi-Gangdruk, were based inside Tibet. But in the 1960s groups of fighters also set up bases in Nepal’s Mustang region, from which they conducted raids across the border into China.
The Mustang resistance, as the Nepal-based fighters came to be known, were supported by CIA funds until 1972, when President Richard Nixon normalized relations with China and the CIA’s Tibetan operation (in Nepal) ended. The Mustang resistance continued without U.S. support until 1974, when Nepal, bowing to pressure from China, sent soldiers into the arid Himalayan region to root out the Tibetan guerillas.
The Hotel Mount Annapurna was the CIA’s olive branch to the Mustang fighters, attempting to give the former guerrillas (many of whom had no education or professional skills beyond soldiering) a chance to make a livelihood as they transitioned to (their former) life as refugees.
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET. TSULTRIM GYATSO, FORMER MANAGER OF HOTEL MOUNT ANNAPURNA FUNDED BY US PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON. Photo. Nolan Peterson. The Daily Signal.
Tsultrim Gyatso, chairman of the Lodrik Welfare Fund and former manager of the Hotel Mount Annapurna. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
“After surrender, it took at least 15 years before the soldiers could finally reintegrate into normal life,” Gyatso said. “The CIA was good in the beginning, but they abandoned us.”
Today, resistance fighter veterans and their descendants still do not have Nepalese citizenship, and most do not have paperwork identifying them as refugees—making it impossible to travel abroad, get a driver’s license, open a bank account or start a business. They live in refugee camps around Pokhara and are largely dependent on welfare for their survival. “Babies don’t even have birth certificates,” Gyatso said. “We just need a paper to identify ourselves so we can work.”
The Mustang resistance raids ultimately did little to seriously damage China’s occupation of Tibet, but the intelligence Tibetan fighters gathered was sometimes of great value to the United States. A raid on a Chinese convoy in 1961, for example, killed a Chinese regimental commander and provided the CIA with what it later referred to as the “bible” on Chinese military intelligence.
A faction of Mustang resistance fighters under the command of Baba Yeshi collaborated with Nepal in 1974 by giving up their compatriots’ positions, clearing the way for an operation that killed many Tibetan guerillas, including their CIA-trained commander, General Gyato Wangdu. Yeshi’s Tibetan collaborators went on to create prosperous carpet-making enterprises in Kathmandu. And unlike the descendants of the Mustang resistance fighters around Pokhara, the descendants of the Tibetan collaborators enjoy Nepalese citizenship, according to Gyatso.
Yet, Gyatso added, there is no more bad blood between the descendants of the Mustang resistance and those who betrayed them. “There are no more divides between factions of the Mustang resistance,” Gyatso said. “We are all Tibetan. The history is there, yes. But we are all against the Chinese. Bad things happened, and His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) has forgiven them.”
Nolan Peterson, a former special operations pilot and a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, is The Daily Signal’s foreign correspondent based in Ukraine.
TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. US PRESIDENT DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER APPROVED FUNDING OF TIBETAN RESISTANCE MOVEMENT WITH INDIA AND TIBET AS US PARTNERS.TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET. 34th US PRESIDENT DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER SANCTIONED FUNDS FOR SUPPORTING TIBETAN RESISTANCE MOVEMENT TO RESTORE BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET.TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. RED CHINA’S ECONOMIC AND MILITARY POWER IMPOSES A HUGE IMBALANCE OF POWER IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. US PRESIDENT DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER TOOK EXECUTIVE ACTION TO CORRECT THIS IMBALANCE.TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO 34th US PRESIDENT DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER FOR HIS PARTNERSHIP WITH TIBET AND INDIA TO RESTORE BALANCE OF POWER IN TIBET.Photo by Bachrach. 1952.TIBET EQUILIBRIUM – BALANCE OF POWER IN OCCUPIED TIBET. THE GREAT TIBET PROBLEM WILL EXIST UNTIL THE BALANCE OF POWER IS RESTORED IN OCCUPIED TIBET.
Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989
Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989.
I ask my readers to remember the events of June 04, 1989. Beijing Doomed because of her own evil actions.
On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre, The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past; the spread of Communism to mainland China in 1949.
Special Frontier Force Reviews Hump Airlift Operation 1942-1945. The Legacy of the Hump Operation lives to this day.
Today, on Wednesday, June 04, 2025 The Living Tibetan Spirits regret Tibet’s decision to pursue the policy of Isolationism while confronting the grave threat posed by Communist takeover of mainland China. In 1943, Tibet had the opportunity to establish formal diplomatic relationships with the United States and other countries of Free World to prevent the spread of Communism to Asia.
Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China apart from the misery and suffering imposed on the lives of Tibetan people.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
DOOM DOOMA DOOMSAYER
Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989
Learn from us on Democracy, Taiwan tells China on Tiananmen Anniversary
Sun Jun 4, 2017, | 8:49am EDT
NEVER FORGET JUNE 04, 1989 – TIANANMEN ANNIVERSARY – BEIJING DOOMED.
A paramilitary policeman keeps watch underneath the portrait of former Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, China June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
By J.R. Wu and Katy Wong | TAIPEI/HONG KONG
Taiwan’s president on Sunday offered to help China to transition to democracy, on the 28th anniversary of China’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, as thousands gathered in Hong Kong for an evening vigil.
Nearly three decades after Beijing sent tanks and troops to quell the 1989 pro-democracy, student-led protests, Chinese authorities ban any public commemoration of the subject on the mainland and have yet to release an official death toll.
Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is the only place on Chinese soil where a large-scale commemoration takes place, symbolizing the financial hub’s relative freedoms compared with the mainland.
This year’s events are especially politically charged, coming just a month before an expected visit of President Xi Jinping to mark 20 years since Hong Kong was handed back to China.
“When Xi Jinping comes, he’ll know the people of Hong Kong have not forgotten,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a veteran democracy activist and an organizer of the annual candlelight vigil.
“The students who died still haven’t got what they deserve. They fought for their future, in the same way, we’re fighting for our future,” 17-year-old Yanny Chan, a high school student, said.
In Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen said that the biggest gap between Taiwan and China was democracy and freedom, needling Beijing at a time when relations between China and the self-ruled island are at a low point.
“For democracy: some are early, others are late, but we all get there in the end,” Tsai said, writing in Chinese on her Facebook page and tweeting some of her comments in English on Twitter.
“Borrowing on Taiwan’s experience, I believe that China can shorten the pain of democratic reform.”
Beijing distrusts Tsai and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party because it traditionally advocates independence for Taiwan. Beijing says the island is part of China and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.
After nearly 40 years of martial law, the island in the late 1980s began its own transition to democracy with presidential elections being held since 1996.
On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had long ago reached a conclusion about June 4.
“I hope you can pay more attention to the positive changes happening in all levels of Chinese society,” she said without elaborating. In Beijing, security was tight as usual at Tiananmen Square, with long lines at bag and identity checks. The square itself was peaceful, thronged with tourists taking photos. One elderly resident of a nearby neighborhood, out for a stroll at the edge of the square, said he remembered the events of 28 years ago clearly.
“The soldiers were just babies, 18, 19 years old. They didn’t know what they were doing,” he told Reuters, asking to be identified only by his family name, Sun.
While some search terms on China’s popular Twitter-like microblog Weibo appeared to be blocked on Sunday, some users were able to post cryptic messages.
“Never forget,” wrote one, above a picture of mahjong tiles with the numbers 6 and 4 on them, for the month and day of the anniversary.
(Reporting by J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Philip Wen in BEIJING; Venus Wu and James Pomfret in HONG KONG; Editing by Tony Munroe, Kim Coghill, and Jane Merriman)
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Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989Vikas Regiment regrets Tiananmen Massacre on June 04, 1989
On the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Living Tibetan Spirits regret Tibet’s Policy of Isolationism
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre, The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past; the spread of Communism to mainland China in 1949.
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
Today, on Wednesday, June 04, 2025 The Living Tibetan Spirits regret Tibet’s decision to pursue the policy of Isolationism while confronting the grave threat posed by Communist takeover of mainland China. In 1943, Tibet had the opportunity to establish formal diplomatic relationships with the United States and other countries of Free World to prevent the spread of Communism to Asia.
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment regrets Tibet’s Policy of Isolationism in 1943
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
CALLS FOR CHINA TO FACE GHOSTS OF ITS PAST ON TIANANMEN ANNIVERSARY
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
FILE – A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing’s Cangan Boulevard in Tiananmen Square, June 5, 1989.
BEIJING —
The United States has added its voice to international calls for China’s communist-led government to give a full public accounting of those who were killed, detained or went missing during the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
In a bold statement from Washington to mark the 29th anniversary of a bloody crackdown that left hundreds — some say thousands — dead, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Chinese authorities to release “those who have been jailed for striving to keep the memory of Tiananmen Square alive; and to end the continued harassment of demonstration participants and their families.”
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
University students place flowers on the “Pillar of Shame” statue, a memorial for those injured and killed in the Tiananmen crackdown, at the University of Hong Kong, June 4, 2018.
To this day, open discussion of the topic remains forbidden in China and the families of those who lost loved ones continue to face oppression. Chinese authorities have labeled the protests a counter-revolutionary rebellion and repeatedly argued that a clear conclusion of the events was reached long ago.
In an annual statement on the tragedy, the group Tiananmen Mothers urged President Xi Jinping in an open letter to “re-evaluate the June 4th massacre” and called for an end to their harassment.
“Each year when we would commemorate our loved ones, we are all monitored, put under surveillance, or forced to travel” to places outside of China’s capital, the letter said. The advocacy group Human Rights in China released the open letter from the Tiananmen Mothers ahead of the anniversary.
“No one from the successive governments over the past 29 years has ever asked after us, and not one word of apology has been spoken from anyone, as if the massacre that shocked the world never happened,” the letter said.
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
FILE – A woman reacts during a candlelight vigil to mark the 28th anniversary of the crackdown of the pro-democracy movement at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, China June 4, 2017.
In his statement, Pompeo also said that on the anniversary “we remember the tragic loss of innocent lives,” adding that as Liu Xiaobo wrote in his 2010 Nobel Peace Prize speech, “the ghosts of June 4th have not yet been laid to rest.”
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
FILE – Liu Xia, wife of deceased Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo and other relatives attend his sea burial off the coast of Dalian, China, in this photo released by Shenyang Municipal Information Office July 15, 2017.
Liu was unable to receive his Nobel prize in person in 2010 and died in custody last year. The dissident writer played an influential role in the Tiananmen protests and was serving an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion of state power when he passed.
At a regular press briefing on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had lodged “stern representations” with the United States over the statement on Tiananmen.
“The United States year in, year out issues statements making ‘gratuitous criticism’ of China and interfering in China’s internal affairs,” Hua said. “The U.S. Secretary of State has absolutely no qualifications to demand the Chinese government do anything,” she added.
In a statement on Twitter, which is blocked in China like many websites, Hu Xijin, the editor of the party-backed Global Times, called the statement a “meaningless stunt.”
In another post he said: “what wasn’t achieved through a movement that year will be even more impossible to be realized by holding whiny commemorations today.”
Commemorations for Tiananmen are being held across the globe to mark the anniversary and tens of thousands are expected to gather in Hong Kong, the only place in China such large-scale public rallies to mark the incident can be held.
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China.
A man wipes the face of a statue of the Goddess of Democracy at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park Monday, June 4, 2018.
Exiled Tiananmen student protest leader Wu’Er Kaixi welcomed the statement from Pompeo.
However, he added that over the past 29 years western democracies appeasement of China has nurtured the regime into an imminent threat to freedom and democracy.
“The world bears a responsibility to urge China, to press on the Chinese regime to admit their wrongdoing, to restore the facts and then to console the dead,” he said. “And ultimately to answer the demands of the protesters 29 years ago and put China on the right track to freedom and democracy.”
Wu’er Kaixi fled China after the crackdown and now resides in Taiwan where he is the founder of Friends of Liu Xiaobo. The group recently joined hands with several other non-profit organizations and plans to unveil a sculpture in July — on the anniversary of his death — to commemorate the late Nobel laureate. The sculpture will be located near Taiwan’s iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper.
In Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that China claims is a part of its territory, political leaders from both sides of the isle have also urged China’s communist leaders to face the past.
On Facebook, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen noted that it was only by facing up to its history that Taiwan has been able to move beyond the tragedies of the past.
“If authorities in Beijing can face up to the June 4th incident and acknowledge that at its roots it was a state atrocity, the unfortunate history of June 4th could become a cornerstone for China to move toward freedom and democracy,” Tsai said.
Tsai’s predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, a member of the opposition Nationalist Party or KMT, who saw close ties with China while in office, also urged Beijing to face up to history and help heal families’ wounds.
“Only by doing this can the Chinese communists bridge the psychological gap between the people on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait and be seen by the world as a real great power,” Ma said.
The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China. The Living Tibetan Spirits revisit the past on the 36th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre. Tibet’s unwillingness to openly resist Communism in 1943 is a crucial factor contributing to the loss of human rights in mainland China. Special Frontier Force Reviews Hump Airlift Operation 1942 – 1945. The Legacy of the Hump Operation lives to this day.
India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet
Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.
“Strange bedfellows” is an idiom that refers to an unlikely or unusual combination of people, ideas, or things who are associated or working together, often in a way that is unexpected. It suggests that the individuals or entities involved would not typically be seen together.
Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.
The phrase “strange bedfellows” is adapted from a line in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest: “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows”. It describes an unusual or unexpected alliance or combination of people or things, often due to circumstances. The original context in The Tempest is a jester finding shelter with a monster, but the phrase has evolved to have a metaphorical meaning, like in the common saying “Politics makes strange bedfellows”.
Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.In 2007, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal. He represents the third face of Strange Bedfellows. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.
It is entirely true to claim that India is not a US ally. Soon after India’s independence in 1947, the US and the UK joined forces to instigate an unprovoked attack to occupy Kashmir illegally while India was waiting with patience to obtain the merger of Kashmir with India using the due process. The First Kashmir War of 1947-48 provides the evidence to show that India is not a US ally.
Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment represents the three faces of “Strange Bedfellows.” Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. Special Frontier Force – Establishment No. 22 – Vikas Regiment – Photo image taken at Chakrata, India on June 03, 1972.
But, it is indeed true to claim that the convergence of interests govern relationships between nations. In 1949, with the birth of Communist China on October 01, the Indian Prime Minister visited the US seeking friendship to formulate a trilateral relationship between the US, India, and Tibet. Since then, the relationship has endured strictly as a trilateral relationship and not a bilateral relationship.
Special Frontier Force at the White House: On April 16, 1991, the 14th Dalai Lama met with US President George H.W. Bush during his first visit to The White House. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.Special Frontier Force at the White House: The 14th Dalai Lama met with US President Bill Clinton on June 20, 2000 at The White House. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.Special Frontier Force at The White House: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speaking with US President George Bush during their meeting in The White House on September 10, 2003. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.Special Frontier Force at The White House: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speaking with US President Barack Obama during their meeting in the Map Room of The White House in Washington, DC on July 16, 2011. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.HISTORY OF THE US-INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS : BRUCE WALKER , FORMER OFFICIAL OF CIA . Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.HISTORY OF THE US-INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS : FORMER CIA OFFICIALS KENNETH KNAUS AND JOHN GREANEY SHARED THEIR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF THE US-INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS . Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.The history of Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22 can be traced back to 1957-58 when the CIA launched Operation ST CIRCUS. This Commemoration on September 10, 2010 was the first time that US had officially acknowledge the CIA operation with the Tibetans and it includes the Mustang(Nepal) Operation. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.The quest for Freedom in Tibet. A military training Camp known as Camp Hale was established in Colorado under the supervision of CIA officers Roger E. McCarthy and John Reagan. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.
If the third partner of this relationship is excluded for any reason, the US-India relationship just dissipates as the US continues to support the plan to dismember the Republic of India in the name of advocating the human rights of Muslims, Sikhs, and other ethnic minorities of India.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada,
Special Frontier Force – Establishment No. 22 – Vikas Regiment
Special Frontier Force – Establishment No. 22 – Vikas Regiment: This badge represents a military alliance/pact between India, Tibet, and the United States of America. Its first combat mission was in the Chittagong Hill Tracts which unfolded on 03 November 1971. It was named Operation Eagle. It accomplished its mission of securing peace in the region that is now known as the Republic of Bangladesh.Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.
India Is Not a U.S. Ally—and Has Never Wanted to Be
Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.
BY ALYSSA AYRES
JUNE 21, 2023 6:00 AM EDT
Ayres is dean and professor of history and international affairs at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, and adjunct senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of OurTimeHasCome: HowIndia is Making Its Place in the World.
With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi slated for a June 22 State Visit to Washington, India will, if briefly, be front-page news in the United States. Since President Clinton ended a chill in U.S.-India relations almost 25 years ago, successive American and Indian administrations across political parties have worked to strengthen ties. So it’s fair to ask: how robust is this relationship today? As with the blind men and the elephant, the answer varies. Is India a bad bet, or is it, as the White House senior Asia policy official said recently, “the most important bilateral relationship with the United States on the global stage”?
Despite careful nurturing by Washington over the years, many aspects of U.S. ties with India remain challenging. Bilateral trade has grown tenfold since 2000, to $191 billion in 2022, and India became the ninth-largest US trading partner in 2021. But longstanding economic gripes persist, meriting 13 pages in the 2023 ForeignTradeBarriers report from the U.S. Trade Representative. Multilaterally, India’s role in the fast-consolidating “Quad” consultation (comprised of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan) has brought shared purpose to Washington and New Delhi, both of which harbor concerns about China. But New Delhi also champions alternative non-Western groupings like the BRICS, and it remains outside bodies central to U.S. diplomacy like the U.N. Security Council and the G7.
Today, U.S.-India cooperation spans defense, global health, sustainable development, climate, and technology, among other things. But deep differences remain, including concerns in Washington about India’s democratic backsliding under Modi, and India’s failure to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In other words, the U.S.-India relationship has been transformed over the past quarter-century, but that transformation has not delivered a partnership or alignment similar to the closest U.S. alliances
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. India is not a U.S. ally, and has not wanted to become one. To see relations with rising power India as on a pathway that culminates in a relationship like that the United States enjoys with Japan or the United Kingdom creates expectations that will not be met. Indian leaders across parties and over decades have long prioritized foreign policy independence as a central feature of India’s approach to the world. That remains the case even with Modi’s openness to the United States.
For India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, protecting his country’s hard-fought independence was a guiding principle for foreign policy. Speaking in the Indian Parliament in March 1951, Nehru noted that “By aligning ourselves with any one Power, you surrender your opinion, give up the policy you would normally pursue because somebody else wants you to pursue another policy.” Twelve years later, evaluating his country’s nonalignment policy in the pages of Foreign Affairs, Nehru went on to observe that it had not “fared badly,” and that “essentially, ‘non-alignment’ is freedom of action which is a part of independence.”
American President Harry S. Truman shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the tarmac as Nehru’s sister, diplomat Vijaya Pandit, and daughter, future Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, stand with them, in Washington D.C., on October 11, 1949. Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment. PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
For famously allied Washington, nonalignment in the 20th century was a bridge too far; in 1956 then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles proclaimed that neutrality was “an obsolete conception…immoral and shortsighted.” It did not help matters that the United States had entered an alliance with India’s arch-rival Pakistan in 1954, and sided with the Pakistani military in the bloody civil war that gave birth to Bangladesh in 1971. Nor, too, when Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed a “Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation” with the USSR in 1971, definitively tilting India toward the Soviet Union even as the United States had tilted toward Pakistan.
Especially since the end of the Cold War, Indian leaders have sought to improve ties with Washington, but not by curtailing India’s independent approach to foreign policy. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee proclaimed India and the United States “natural allies” in a landmark 1998 speech in New York. Yet this was perhaps more a term of art than a call for an alliance as it occurred against the backdrop of India’s nuclear tests, underscoring New Delhi’s willingness to upset global nuclear nonproliferation conventions, which it never joined. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose 10 years at the helm greatly improved Indo-U.S. relations, pursued a civil-nuclear agreement with Washington and ushered in new cooperation in high technology, defense, and clean energy. But his government too defended its principle of “strategic autonomy” as a redline for its foreign policy even as it moved closer to Washington than ever in the past. Defending the civil-nuclear deal with Washington before Parliament in 2008, Singh twice asserted that “Our strategic autonomy will never be compromised.”
In important ways, Prime Minister Modi represents a break with India’s past, most notably in his emphasis on India’s Hindu, rather than syncretic and secular, cultural heritage. But his approach to the United States remains consistent with the history of his country’s foreign policy independence.
Modi has deepened ties with the United States, now across three U.S. presidents, through increased partnership in defense, in advanced technology, and in energy, just to name a few, as well as through moments of high symbolism, like his 2015 RepublicDay invitation to former President Barack Obama, the first time an American president joined this day honoring India’s constitution. Even so, Modi has leaned into the United States while leaning into many other partners around the world. The Modi government invokes a Sanskrit saying, the “world is one family” (vasudhaiva kutumbakam), to frame Indian diplomacy. This approach has been termed “multialignment,” a theory of seeking positive ties as far and as widely as possible, without seeing contradictions in this approach.
In practice, New Delhi has carefully managed its relationships with Saudi Arabia as well as Iran; with Israel as well as the Palestinian Territories; with the United States as well as Russia. India’s G20 presidency this year encapsulates this orientation, with its Sanskritic theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” and its twin efforts to lead the forum for the world’s 20 largest economies while self-consciously presenting itself as the “Voice of the Global South.”
With this history in mind, it’s easier to perceive that momentum in the U.S.-India relationship does not necessarily imply a path to a formal alliance or mutual defense treaty. In the United States, the mental model for positive international cooperation defaults to seeing “ally” as the ultimate endpoint. For India, that suggests a curtailment of independence. And with India, even as cooperation becomes more extensive than ever in the past, consequential differences remain.
For many in Washington, the dramatic growth of coordination and joint activities under the Quad consultative group fills a growing need in light of China’s rise, encompassing subjects as far-flung as maritime security, infrastructure, climate and resilience, vaccines, technology standards, and higher education—all underlining Indian strategic convergence with the United States in the Indo-Pacific. Yet strategic convergence there does not mean everywhere: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its year-long war has elicited a tepid tut-tut from New Delhi, while India has escalated its purchases of cheap Russian oil at a time Washington seeks to isolate Moscow.
On closer examination this foreign policy independence and desire to define its own path so prized by India may offer lessons for U.S. foreign policy. The unipolar moment has passed; in its place we have more actors with their own perspectives, and a rising China with global ambitions and its own priorities increasingly shaping the priorities of others. The array of special relationships and alliances nurtured by the United States over decades are still in place, but many of these are now inflected by divergences with Washington. Take Turkey, or France, or Egypt, Pakistan, or Brazil. These U.S. allies do not always see their alliance relationship with Washington as barriers to taking decisions that contradict U.S. preferences. Indeed, President Emmanuel Macron too invokes “strategicautonomy.”
It’s here that India’s ambivalence offers a lens onto the world Washington is likely to encounter on a growing scale. In this world of more diffused power—a world with more diverse actors taking more distinctive foreign policy steps—partnerships and even alliances marked by substantial disagreements might be the new normal. In fact, managing ambivalence may be the central skill for American foreign policy in the years ahead.
THE EAGLE CONNECTION: THE BALD EAGLE – THE GOLDEN EAGLE – OPERATION EAGLE – WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?The Institution of Dalai Lama is important to preserve Tibetan Political Identity. The Government of Tibet is represented by this Seal of Ganden Phodrang.Human Misery Formulates India-US-Tibet Trilateral Relationship. India is not a US ally for the US-India relations exist as a trilateral partnership with Tibet. These three Strange Bedfellows come together to give identity to a military partnership called Special Frontier Force – Establishment 22 – Vikas Regiment.
Red China’s Colonial War in Tibet: Red China’s Fate is Sealed. Beijing Doomed. Red China will fall into the grave she prepared to bury Tibetan Identity.Red China’s Colonial War in Tibet: Red China’s Fate is Sealed. Beijing Doomed. Red China will fall into the grave she prepared to bury Tibetan Identity.
Red China’s Colonial War against Tibet is doomed to fail and Tibet will declare ‘Victory Through Patience’. Tibetans have demonstrated the quality of endurance under trials. Their patience gives them freedom from cowardice or despondency. Patience is mainly an attitude of mind with respect to external events. Longsuffering imparts patience by changing attitude with respect to people. Patience best develops under trials or trying times. Tibetans are waiting calmly for something they deeply cherish. They are bearing suffering and trouble with self-control, steadiness and fortitude. Tibetans are showing restraint under great provocation and are refraining from retaliation, tolerating repressive measures used by Red China. Tibetan endurance of suffering without flinching will ensure their victory over Red China’s Colonial War.
Red China’s Colonial War in Tibet: Red China’s Fate is Sealed. Beijing Doomed. Red China will fall into the grave she prepared to bury Tibetan Identity.
Red China with her passionate desire to colonize Tibet, started preparing graves to bury Tibetan Culture, Tibetan Religion, and Tibetan Identity. As the saying goes, people who dig graves for others are at risk of falling into the pits they prepare. Red China is digging her own grave and has set herself on a path of Self-Destruction.
Red China’s Colonial War in Tibet: Red China’s Fate is Sealed. Beijing Doomed. Red China will fall into the grave she prepared to bury Tibetan Identity.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
XI’S TIBET POLICY IS NOTHING NEW, BUT AN OLD COLONIAL WAR AGAINST TIBET – CNN iREPORT
By SHAMBALA Posted August 28, 2015. McLeod Ganj, India
Red China’s Colonial War in Tibet: Red China’s Fate is Sealed. Beijing Doomed. Red China will fall into the grave she prepared to bury Tibetan Identity.
More from Shambala
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CNN PRODUCER NOTE
Dharamshala — The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.
Invaded by China in 1949, the independent country of Tibet was forced to face the direct loss of 1.2 million lives that comes from military invasion and, soon after, the loss of universal freedoms that stemmed from Communist ideology and its programs such as the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). However, it is erroneous to believe that the worst has passed. The fate of Tibet’s unique national, cultural and religious identity is seriously threatened and manipulated by the Chinese authorities in the past six decades.
Chinese government’s policy of occupation and oppression has resulted in no more or less than the destruction of Tibet’s national independence, culture and religion, environment and the universal human rights of its people. Time and time again, the infliction of this destruction sees China break international laws with impunity, while attempting to transform Tibet’s 2.5 million square kilometers into complete China.
On the 50th anniversary of the so-called “peaceful liberation”, Chinese President Xi Jinping called more the government’s efforts in “Promoting Economic,” “Ethnic Unity” and “Social Development” in Tibet, shows no different claims, revealing the unpredictable nature of a regime bent on maintaining stability even through terror, exposing the depth of China’s present illness.
Xi’s concepts of repressive policies reflect the deep uncertainty that aiming at the core of the another “Cultural Revolution” strategy in further colonizing Tibet, showing the whole world once again the real terror nature of the Communist regime.
Ever since its colonial project was set in motion, the “Cultural Revolution” has insisted that it seeks to colonize Tibet “peacefully”, indeed that its colonization of the country will not only not harm the Tibetan population, but that it was successful to be of benefit to millions of illegal Chinese settlers.
The main reasons behind the dirty politics of why Xi is “calling for more educational campaigns to promote ethnic unity and a sense of belonging to the same Chinese nationality,” is that Tibetans would become real Chinese and must speak Mandarin, allowing coexistence with the Chinese settlers who would be happy and grateful for being colonized and civilized by the communist regime; and a secret, logistical and practical strategy to vanquish the Tibetan population from Tibet, which threatens the very existence of Tibetan culture, religion and national identity.
The impacts of mass immigration of Ethnic Chinese into Tibet was and is a barbaric act with aim to destroy Tibet completely— a target for the worst excesses of the Chinese regime. Tibetan exiles claim 7.5 million Chinese now live in Tibet overwhelming the six million Tibetans. These figures are unconfirmed, but recent Chinese figures suggest this trend is accurate.
Mass murder Mao Zedong killed an estimated 49-78 million people during China’s Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976. From Mao to Hu Jintao, one after another, the Chinese dictators have taken full control over the lives of their citizens. The similarities shared with previous dictators from Mao to Hu, Xi’s approach of declaring peaceful intentions for “Ethnic Unity and “Economy Development” behind which he sought to hide Mao’s “Marxism” inherited from “Sovietism”, a violent strategy of conquering and terrorizing the land of Tibet into pieces, adopting wholesale thenceforward, which continues to be the cornerstone of the repressive policy to the present.
Chinese hard-line policies in creating a new socialist paradise, seeking hearts and minds with Tibetan people will never fulfill its dreams. Indeed, within the framework of the 17 Point Agreement between China and Tibet, the PLA troops marching into Tibet shall abide by all the above-mentioned policies and shall also be fair in all buying and selling and shall not arbitrarily take a single needle or thread from the people. However, in the past six decades, Tibetans are denied of the basic rights of expression, speech, movement, and religion under the hard-line policies, including political repression, economic marginalization, environmental destruction, cultural assimilation and denial of religious freedom.
As China became the 3rd of the top ten militaries in the world, according to “Global Firepower”, why China’s strategists have increasingly acknowledged that the stability in Tibet is central to China’s national interest, and particularly as present as the early 1980s. The term “Economy Development” and “Stability” has nothing to do with Tibetan people. But the Tibetan plateau, dubbed the “Third Pole”, holds the third largest store of water-ice in the world and is the source of many of Asia’s rivers. The glaciers, snow peaks, rivers, lakes, forest and wetlands of Tibet provide major environmental services to Asia, from Pakistan to Vietnam to northern China.The climate in Tibet generates and regulates monsoon rains over Asia. An estimated 70% of water in China is heavily polluted from uncontrolled dumping of chemicals. Instead of dealing with this the Chinese regime is diverting water from Tibet to north and west China to supply over 300 million Chinese people. It is also damming rivers to generate hydroelectricity which is in turn used to power industrial developments in China. Dams on rivers and their major tributaries cause massive interruptions to wild mountain rivers and the ecosystems dependent on them. They also give China strategic power over neighboring countries.
Chinese state-owned mining companies are quickening their extraction of copper, gold and silver in Tibet. These mines are usually based close to rivers. Tibet is also rich in other resources including lead, zinc, molybdenum, asbestos, uranium, chromium, lithium and much more. Tibet is China’s only source of chromium and most of its accessible lithium is in Tibet. These raw materials are used in manufacturing of household goods, computers and smart phones, among much else.
China is the world’s largest producer of copper and the world’s second biggest consumer of gold. The World Gold Council predicts that the consumption in China will double within a decade. Tibet’s reserves of copper and gold are worth nearly one trillion dollars. Chinese companies have traditionally mined on a small-scale but now large-scale extractions are taking place, mainly by large companies, owned by or with close links to the State.
More importantly, in connection with the size of Tibet it needs to be pointed out that the so-called ‘Tibet Autonomous Region’ – which is what the some parts of world mistakenly see as ‘Tibet’ – is only the truncated half of Tibet. The North-Eastern Province of Amdo; has been separated from the rest of Tibet and renamed ‘Qinghai.’ Also; large parts of Eastern Tibet; the traditional Kham Province; have been incorporated into neighboring Chinese Provinces.
Economic growth mostly benefits The Chinese settlers and businesses and workers, as most workers in Tibet mines are Chinese and the extraction takes place without regard to the local environment and areas of religious significance. Most of Tibet is vulnerable to earthquakes and highly volatile. Threats posed by this instability are exacerbated by mining and damming projects. In 2013 a landslide in the Gyama Valley is a great example, which highlighted the fatal destruction of Tibet’s environment. In almost all areas in Tibet, Tibetans have frequently protested against Chinese government, where there are mining projects in Tibet, particularly in recent years. China has recently drilled a 7 km bore hole, to reach and explore Tibet’s oil and natural gas resources. China National Petroleum Corporation estimates the basin’s oil reserves at 10 billion tons.
As well as global climate change, industrial projects such as mining, damming and deforestation are leading to the Tibetan glacier melting at a faster rate, contributing in turn to further global warming. Before the Chinese occupation there was almost no Tibetan industrialization, damming, draining of wetlands, fishing and hunting of wildlife. Tibet remained unfenced, its grasslands intact, its cold climate able to hold enormous amounts of organic carbon in the soil.
China has now moved millions of Tibetan nomads from their traditional grasslands to urban settlements, opening their land for the extraction of resources and ending traditional agricultural practices which have sustained and protected the Tibetan environment for centuries.
The mining companies also benefit from state financing of railways, power stations and many other infrastructure projects. Much of China’s significant transport infrastructure developments in Tibet have been intended to facilitate the movement of military forces into the country and the removal of natural resources from it. companies also benefit from finance at concessional rates to corporate borrowers, tax holidays, minimal environmental standards and costs, no requirement to compensate local communities and subsidized rail freight rates to get concentrates to smelters or metal to markets.These above valid reasons for saying Tibetans inside Tibet will never sense happier life in a so-called “Maoist socialist paradise.” Instead, we have, and always had the fears and sense of the totalitarian nature of Chinese regime.
However, the authoritarians in Beijing always have popularised the expression of Tibet as a “Peaceful Liberation” since the occupation in 1949— the totalitarianism understood well that its colonial strategy depended on a deliberate and insistent confusion of the binary terms “Liberation” and “Unity”, so that each of them hides behind the other as one and the same strategy: “Unity” will always be the public name of a colonial war, and “Liberation”, once it became necessary and public in the form of total invasions, would be articulated as the principal means to achieve the sought after “ethnic unity”.
Why Xi said the country should “firmly take the initiative” in the fight against separatism, vowing to crack down on all activities seeking to separate the country and destroy social stability. Waging colonial war under banner of “Unity” is so central to totalitarianism and Chinese propaganda that China’s 1949 invasion of Tibet, which killed 1.2 million Tibetans and destroyed over six thousand monasteries and temples and historical structures looted and all beyond repair, was termed the “Peaceful Liberation of Tibet”. “Liberation” and “Ethnic Unity”, therefore, are the same means whose only and ultimate strategic goal is Chinese colonization of Tibet and the subjugation and expulsion of Tibetan population.
To bring about the expulsion of the Tibetans and the establishment of the Chinese settler colony, the CCP sought the patronage of the powers that controlled the fate of Tibet. Mao to Xi whereas their assiduous efforts to court the Mao’s old leadership and persuade to grant them a charter failed, however the soviet style leadership after Mao adopted the same strategy under various banners and successfully secured the patronage of world, and became the master of Tibet.
Tibet remained largely isolated from the rest of the world’s civilizations. After 1949, the CCP successfully secured support for their colonial project. After more than 40 years the world recognize that Mao was responsible for genocide of millions of Chinese, Tibetans, Mongolians and Uyghurs. Even Deng Xiaoping actually believed that Mao was about 80% wrong, prove not only that mass massacre happened from 1959-61 but also that these were mainly the result of policy errors that the current regime continues to draw from.
None of these, however, meant morally justifiable and acceptable, but a true nature that the deadly ideology of communism while abandoned their public claims that their “peaceful liberation” colonization of Tibet would not be harmful to the Tibetan people while employing, at the same time, the most violent means to evict the Tibetans off their land.
The totalitarian leader, Mao, following Stalin’s strategy of securing the patronage of major world powers articulated the Soviet position thus. Soviet type colonization must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population -behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach. That is repressive policy; not what it should be, but what it actually is, whether we admit it or not. We clearly understand why Xi is calling for more “patriotic education campaigns” to promote “ethnic unity” and a sense of belonging to the same “Chinese nationality”.
Despite officially introducing more environment-friendly policies in recent years, China continues to flood Tibet with potentially destructive mega development projects such as railway routes, oil and gas pipelines, petrochemical complexes, hydro dams, construction of airports, highways, military bases and new cities for migrants from Mainland China. Is this for a sense of belonging to the same “Chinese nationality”?
What need we have, otherwise, of the Peaceful Liberation? Or of the Mandate? Their value to us is that outside Power has undertaken to create in the country such conditions of administration and security that if the native population should desire to hinder our work, they will find it impossible.It was, in fact, this regime’s commitment to “peaceful liberation” with the Tibetans, whose land they sought to total control, that provoked the ire of terror group that gradually transformed the CCP. The CCP leaders’ assumption that the Tibetans were bribe-able, that they could be bought, and that they would accept Chinese domination in exchange for nominal economic benefits was challenged by Mao. He once stated that the communist army’s “only foreign debt” was that incurred to the Tibet and its people while on the Long March in 1930s.
As the idea of peaceful liberation of Tibet as a means to establish more colonial conquests continued to be entrenched in Maoist considerations, it would be pursued alongside invisible war even after 1949, as evidenced by the multiple invasions of Tibet in the 1950s, and in the new century. These wars would be waged explicitly as part of China’s pursuit of “peaceful liberation” to achieve its colonial aims, and Nor-eastern Tibet capitulated completely to Chinese colonialism, while continuing the war against those Tibetans who continued to resist Maoist colonial logic.
Human rights monitoring and protection has become an unusual challenge to the de facto impunity of the government system. Acquiring accurate information from the so-called ethnic minority regions of Tibet had become extremely difficult due to the secretive nature of operations and so-called lack of transparency. Tibetans in their own home country have become victims of deep-seated prejudice. A carefully chiseled policy has led to a cultural genocide in Tibet due to denial of basic fundamental rights, freedoms and justice over a period of 60 years. The Human Rights situation has not improved in Tibet.
The ongoing suppression of the Tibetan people has been openly carried out whether intentionally or unintentionally. The Chinese government continues to accelerate the political, economic, social and geographical integration of Tibet into China. There is no let-up on many unpopular measures of control imposed by China on the Tibet region such as the “Patriotic re-education Campaign” under policy of “Unity and Peace,” despite how-many-ever protests from Tibetans. This Chinese policy with the active support of the military presence in Tibet, at least a quarter of a million strong, strictly governs the territory, after all China still claims a “peaceful liberation” of Tibet and President Xi Jinping vowed to follow same old way. Is this what China really wanted the whole world to witness in an occupied Tibet in the 21st century?
The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.
Photo caption: China’s aggressive Violence Against Tibetan People in their homeland, in 2012. Photo: file
The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.The Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to “Ethnic Unity”, “Economy Development” and “Social Stability” in Tibet under the banner of “Peaceful Liberation”, which nether seeks a peaceful solution nor a signal for a new reform of more openness. But it clearly shows China is further strengthening an integral element of another “cultural revolution” project in Tibet. One must say Xi is revealing the true nature of a Communist regime in Tibet, a similar sense of strategic inviolability characterized the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer, Mao Zedong.
Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute
Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border DisputeSino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute: ACHARYA J B KRIPALANI, GANDHIAN THINKER, FREEDOM FIGHTER, SOCIAL WORKER, AND EMINENT INTELLECTUAL OF INDIA IS SEEN IN THIS PHOTO (LEFT) ALONG WITH SARDAR PATEL (MIDDLE) AND SIR SEN (RIGHT). ACCORDING TO ACHARYA KRIPALANI THE PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT IS BORN IN SIN. I MET THIS NATIONALIST LEADER, MEMBER OF INDIAN PARLIAMENT DURING JUNE 1967 IN NEW DELHI.
Seventy years ago, India and Peoples’ Republic of China had signed the Panchsheel Agreement without coming to a proper understanding about the status of Tibet. At that time, both India and Tibet had earnestly believed that China would not oppress Tibet with its military conquest. India and Tibet were hoping that China would respect the traditional governance of Tibet by the Institution called The Dalai Lama or the Ganden Phodrang Government which ruled over Tibet for four centuries since 1642.
Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute :IN MY OPINION, THIS PHOTO IMAGE PROVIDES THE EVIDENCE FOR THE DECEPTION OF PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT OF JUNE 1954. CHINA’S PRIME MINISTER CHOU EN-LAI HAD ARRIVED IN NEW DELHI ON AN OFFICIAL VISIT ACCOMPANIED BY THE 14th DALAI LAMA WHO IS RECOGNIZED BY INDIA AS THE HEAD OF THE TIBETAN GOVERNMENT. AT THAT TIME CHINA HAD DELIBERATELY DISTORTED THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF ITS MILITARY CONQUEST OF TIBET.Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute: AFTER SIGNING THE PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT, INDIA TRIED ITS BEST TO LOOSEN CHINA’S MILITARY GRIP OVER TIBET. BOTH INDIA, AND TIBET HOPED THAT DIPLOMACY WOULD PREVAIL AND THAT TIBET WOULD ENJOY FULL AUTONOMY DESPITE CHINA’S MILITARY CONQUEST OF TIBET DURING 1950. THIS PHOTO IMAGE OF CHOU EN-LAI’S VISIT TO NEW DELHI ALONG WITH THE 14th DALAI LAMA GAVE HOPE TO BOTH INDIA AND TIBET.Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute: THE DECEPTION OF PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT OF 1954: CHINA’S PRIME MINISTER CHOU EN-LAI HAD VISITED INDIA DURING 1956, ABOUT TWO YEARS AFTER THE SIGNING OF THE PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT. THIS PHOTO IMAGE IS THE EVIDENCE FOR CHINA’S DECEPTION. CHINA GAVE THE IMPRESSION THAT IT WOULD RESPECT THE POLITICAL INSTITUTION OF THE DALAI LAMA THAT RULED OVER TIBET FOR FOUR CENTURIES.
While India’s Prime Minister Nehru and Tibet’s ruler, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama had hoped for a peaceful relationship with China, many Indians were not optimistic and had suspected that China had annexed Tibet with its military invasion of 1950. This Panchsheel Agreement, in the words of Acharya Kripalani, is “Born in Sin.” I had expressed a similar view while commenting on the US-China trade relations that were initiated by President Richard Nixon and Dr. Henry Kissinger and described it as an act of “Original Sin” or “Whole Sin.”
Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute: THE DECEPTION OF PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT OF 1954: INDIA’S VICE-PRESIDENT DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN VISITED PEKING DURING SEPTEMBER 1957 AND MET WITH THE LEADERS OF COMMUNIST CHINA WITH AN EARNEST DESIRE TO SAVE TIBET FROM CHINA’S MILITARY OPPRESSION. THE TRUE INTENTIONS OF CHINA GOT EXPOSED AND THE DECEPTION OF PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT BECAME FULLY EVIDENT.Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute: THE DECEPTION OF PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT OF 1954: TOWARDS THE END OF 1957, BOTH INDIA AND TIBET HAD FULLY RECOGNIZED THE DECEPTION OF THE PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT THAT WAS INITIATED BY CHINA AFTER ITS MILITARY INVASION OF TIBET IN 1950. A TIBETAN RESISTANCE MOVEMENT TOOK ITS BIRTH TO FACE THE CHALLENGE POSED BY CHINA’S MILITARY OCCUPATION OF TIBET.
In my opinion, any agreement between China and India would have no validity if it involves the Land of Tibet. The Panchsheel Agreement is void as Tibet has not signed this agreement. India and China do not share a common border and the concern about peaceful coexistence must include the concern for the true aspirations of Tibetan people and their natural rights to their territory and to their right to Freedom from military occupation.To begin with, I ask for resolution of Tibet-China Border Dispute.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
MOVING BEYOND THE PANCHSHEEL DECEPTION
Ram Madhav | INDIAN EXPRESS, Saturday, June 28, 2014 12:51 am
THE DECEPTION OF PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT: Mr. Ram Madhav in his opinion had correctly stated that the Panchsheel Agreement between India and China does not include the Land of Tibet. Without the participation of Tibet, the Agreement has no worth and it will not achieve any purpose.
India and China can cooperate with each other on the principles of sovereign equality and mutual sensitivity.
Summary
India and China must develop a new framework for bilateral relations, unshackled by empty rituals and symbols.
Ram Madhav
The biggest problem in Sino-Indian relations is the utter lack of ingenuity and innovativeness. Six decades after the formal engagement through Panchsheel and five decades after the bloody disengagement due to the 1962 War, leaders of both the countries struggle to come up with new and out-of-the-box answers to the problems plaguing their relationship.
When there are no new ideas, one resorts to symbolism and rituals. These are projected as the great new ideas to kickstart a new relationship. However, there is nothing great or new about them. They are the very same worn out and tried-tested-and-failed actions of the last several decades.
The Panchsheel itself is one ritual that successive Indian governments have unfailingly performed. Vice President Hamid Ansari will be visiting Beijing today to uphold India’s commitment to the ritual. The occasion is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Panchsheel Agreement.
It was exactly six decades ago, on June 28, 1954, roughly two months after the formal signing of the Panchsheel, that Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai visited India. He and then-prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had issued a historic statement, reaffirming their commitment to the five principles enshrined in the Panchsheel to “lessen the tensions that exist in the world today and help in creating a climate of peace”.
Contrary to public perception or propaganda, Panchsheel was actually an agreement between the “Tibetan region of China and India” on “trade and intercourse.” It did include five principles, like mutual respect, mutual non-aggression, mutual benefit, peaceful coexistence, etc, but the very title of the agreement was a defeat for India.
The British had, at least from the Simla Accord of 1912 until they left India, not conceded that Tibet was a part of China. Unfortunately, one of the first foreign policy deviations of the Nehru government was the signing of the Panchsheel, wherein India had formally called the Tibetan region as “of China”. Thus the Panchsheel was signed as a treaty of peaceful coexistence over the obituary of Tibetan independence. That was why parliamentarian Acharya Kripalani called the agreement as “born in sin”.
The Panchsheel met its end just three months after its signing, when the Chinese were found violating Indian borders in Ladakh in late-1954. A formal death note was written by Mao Zedong a few months before the 1962 war, when he told Zhou that what India and China should practice is not “peaceful coexistence” but “armed coexistence”. The war followed and ended in humiliation and loss of territory for India. It left behind a massive border dispute that continues to haunt both the countries.
However, this didn’t seem to deter the Indian and, to some extent, the Chinese leadership in continuing with the deception of the Panchsheel. The history of Sino-Indian relations in the last five decades is replete with instances of violations of sovereignty, mutual animosity, attempts to upstage each other and general ill-will. Mostly the Chinese have been on the wrong side of the so-called Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
Yet, the ritual continued through the decades and changing governments in India. Nehru to P.V. Narasimha Rao to Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued paying lip service to the Panchsheel during bilateral visits.
“Only with coexistence can there be any existence,” declared Indira Gandhi in 1983. The next prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, expressed confidence in 1988 that “the five principles of peaceful coexistence provide the best way to handle relations between nations”. Rao as prime minister declared in 1993 that “these principles remain as valid today as they were when they were drafted”. While Vajpayee too was forced to continue this ritual, he made a significant departure by refusing to falsely credit China for following the Panchsheel. He put extra emphasis on “mutual sensitivity to the concerns of each other” and “respect for equality.”
At a time when Beijing is celebrating six decades of the Panchsheel, it is important to look at a new framework for Sino-Indian relations beyond Panchsheel. Vajpayee laid the foundation for a renewed outlook by emphasising on sensitivity and equality. That can form the basis for the new framework.
The Chinese have a clever way of promoting their superiority and exclusivism. Sinologists describe it as the Middle Kingdom syndrome. While Nehru wanted to take credit for the Panchsheel, Zhou told Richard Nixon in 1973 that “actually, the five principles were put forward by us, and Nehru agreed. But later on he didn’t implement them”. The Chinese also entered into a similar agreement with Myanmar (then Burma) in 1954, thus ensuring that the Panchsheel wasn’t exclusive to their relationship with India.
For the Beijing event, the Chinese government has invited the president of India as well as the president of Myanmar, General Thein Sein, who will be present. Ansari will lead the Indian delegation. Without any malice towards Ansari, one would notice the downgrading of India’s participation in the Beijing event. Beijing was keen on having the president or prime minister at the event. But for once, the South Block mandarins seem to have done their homework, advising the Indian government against sending either of them. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj too decided to skip the event and chose to visit Dhaka around the same time, sending a rather strong signal.
If Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is expected to visit India in September, decide to depart from the Panchsheel framework and embark on a new relationship, both countries will benefit. Both leaders have that ability. Both enjoy the trust and confidence of their countries. Most importantly, both are seen to be out-of-the-box leaders.
India and China can cooperate with each other on the principles of sovereign equality and mutual sensitivity. China has emerged as an economic superpower, but is exposed to serious internal and external threats. It is facing problems with almost all of its 13 neighbours. The fact that China spends more money on internal security than on external security speaks volumes about its internal vulnerability. So, while India is not as big economically as China, its security apparatus is better-placed.
Modi and Xi can chart a new course in Sino-Indian relations if they are prepared to unshackle themselves from ritualism and symbolism. Both have the ability and the support to do it.
Madhav is a member of the Central Executive, RSS, and the author of ‘Uneasy Neighbours: India and China after Fifty Years of the War’
Sino-Indian Relations must be reformulated after resolving Tibet-China Border Dispute: THE DECEPTION OF PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT OF 1954: INDIA AND TIBET RECOGNIZED THE DECEPTION OF COMMUNIST CHINA AND WERE LEFT WITH NO OPTION. THE TIBETAN RESISTANCE MOVEMENT TOOK ITS BIRTH IN 1957-1958 AND IT SYMBOLIZES THE FAILURE OF THE PANCHSHEEL AGREEMENT. TO CONFIRM THE FACT OF THIS FAILURE, CHINA HAD VICIOUSLY ATTACKED INDIA DURING OCTOBER 1962.