New Delhi
29 June 2006
Beijing has launched a publicity blitz to hardsell the Qinghai-Tibet
Railway to a largely sceptical Indian audience but New Delhi in its wisdom has chosen
to remain engaged with more mundane issues like the reopening of the Nathu-La border
trade and indicated that it does not want to raise the ante in the India-China Friendship
Year. Silence on the part of the Ministry of External Affairs, however, has caused
consternation in certain quarters.
The new 1,956-kilometre Qinghai-Tibet railway line is set for inauguration on July 1. It
runs across the frozen tundra of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from Lhasa to Xining, capital
of Qinghai province. Beijing has indicated that it plans to build a railway line to the
Tibetan town of Chomo near Sikkim within the next 10 years. The railway is the highest
and longest highland railroad in the world and the first to connect the Tibet Autonomous
Region with other parts of China.
Beijing has maintained that the construction of roads and railways is a part of "Western
Development Strategy" of China. When asked whether the railway will do any harm to
Indian interests, a spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said, "China
and India are not only good neighbors but also strategic cooperative partners. The
improvement of the infrastructure [will boost bilateral cooperation.] There will be no
possible harm to India."
However, an analyst, writing for the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, observes that
"while China's recent initiatives in Tibet do provide business opportunity, the strategic
challenges must not be overlooked." He asserts that "the Chinese investment in
infrastructure development in India-China border areas, coupled with a sustained double
digit growth in its defence budget and its military modernisation constitute a security
challenge."
Another international relations and strategic affairs analyst, Dr Subhash Kapila, who is a
consultant with South Asia Analysis Group, says, "China's railway line and other military
support logistics infrastructure in Tibet acts as a force multiplier to China's combat
potential against India." He goes on to observe that the "military implications for India of
China's improved combat potential that it can generate from Tibet against India cannot
be dismissively ignored."
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