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     Ashton Side Hero Username: Ashton Post Number: 7293 Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 66.90.104.94 Rating: N/A |
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/yahoocanada/101001/canada/why_som e_fear_china_and_india_are_on_the_road_to_war When Manmohan Singh warned of China's "new assertiveness" last week, Asia watchers snapped to attention. The normally sage Indian prime minister accused Beijing of seeking to expand its reach in South Asia. With China muscling for resources and geopolitical clout, India, he warned, had better take heed. The timing of the rare public rebuke was especially provocative, as it came hot on the heels of a series of diplomatic flare-ups between the two giants. Temperatures on the continent are rising in step with the Asian rivals' growth. Last month, China denied a visa to an Indian general on the grounds he was based in disputed Jammu and Kashmir. That was retaliation, experts figure, for India's earlier denial of a visa to a senior Chinese diplomat. China has, for more than a year, been angering India by refusing to issue normal visas to residents of Indian Kashmir. It is also stoking Indian fears of being encircled by a Chinese infrastructure build-up in northern Pakistan, and Indian Ocean port and rail developments in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Last month, India's excitable media seized on reports that China has stationed as many as 11,000 troops in northern Pakistan, feeding growing fears of the "Chinese dragon." For now, a planned defence exchange between the two has been halted at New Delhi's behest. This diplomatic tit-for-tat is getting a lot of attention because the lineup features the world's two biggest countries, its two fastest growing economies, and two of its biggest militaries, which boast a combined four million troops, and nukes in both arsenals. To regional analysts, China and India are gearing up for what the Economist recently dubbed the "contest of the century." To hawks, they're on the road to war. Not only has China become a key concern for Indian strategists and decision-makers, but Beijing has begun fretting about India's diplomatic assertiveness and military modernization, says Jonathan Holslag, a Brussels-based scholar of Chinese foreign policy and author of the recent book China and India: Prospects for Peace. Right now, "the top leadership in each country is well aware of the high costs of a clash," he says. "But there is huge pressure to respond strongly to alleged provocations and to keep the other's military power in check." |
