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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

IHT Commentary by Indian author Flogs China's Historical Claims

The International Herald Tribune offered a commentary yesterday castigated China for is hypocrisy on history:

The incident revealed how China contradictorily deals in history vis-a`-vis its neighbors to further its own foreign policy objectives: While it wants India to forget 1962, it misses no opportunity to bash Japan over the head with the history card. Its aim is not to extract more apologies from Tokyo for its World War II atrocities but to continually shame and tame Japan. (It is ironic that visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao used Indian soil last April to demand that Japan "face up to history squarely," setting the stage for his country's orchestrated anti-Japanese protests.)

Another way China manipulates history is by reconstructing the past to prepare for the future. This was illustrated by the Chinese foreign ministry's posting on its Web site last year a revised historical claim that the ancient kingdom of Koguryo, founded in northern Korea, was Chinese. This was seen as an attempt to hedge China's options with a potentially unified Korea.

Then there is China's continued use of what it presents as history to advance extravagant territorial or maritime claims. Its maps show an entire Indian state - Arunachal Pradesh - as well as other Indian areas as part of China.

While the Chinese-Japanese rivalry has deep roots, dating back to the 16th century, the Chinese and Indian military frontiers met for the first time in history only in 1950, when China annexed (or as its history books say, "liberated") Tibet, a buffer nearly the size of Western Europe. Within 12 years of becoming India's neighbor, China invaded this country, with Mao Zedong cleverly timing the aggression with the Cuban missile crisis.

The writer, Brahma Chellaney, is a darling of the Indian right. What's interesting about this piece is that there is no mention of Taiwan. Perhaps Mr. Chellaney realized that India was as vulnerable on Goa as China is on Taiwan, or perhaps it was just too complex to deal with. Or perhaps he was trying to limit the insults to Beijing.

9 comments:

  1. As the first "capitalist" country to recognize China, India got kicked in the junk for return. China seized a vast disputed territory between Tibet and India through force, few years after the 1954 joint commuique, which was based on China's Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

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  2. this is full of lies. LOL.

    historians (e.g. Birtish Maxwell) have already showed it was India who started the war in 1962.

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  3. and oooh, China did not take an inch of the 'arunachal' after the border war. it retreated back to north of MacMahon line.

    why don't you do some research first?:)

    (but that is probably because it know it was hard to defend)

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  4. Wow.. full of lies... that's a first. First of all, it's rather obvious that both version of the story has its own group of supporters, and yet, it does not diminish the fact that "China seized a vast disputed territory between Tibet and India through force". Besides, I have never said anything about them not signing the Sino-Indian bilateral Peace and Tranquillity Accords afterward, which could of had something to do with various reasons(lack of international support due to its very timely "defensive operation" during the Cuban Missile Crisis, perhaps). So, which part of my post did you find to be false? All of it? And yes, some research is needed.

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  5. not your post, the indian writer i was talking about 'full of lies'.

    as for your comment above, which 'vasty disputed territory' china took by force?
    i thought india took the disputed territory between tibet and india.

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  6. As far as Tezpur, Assam, about fifty kilometers from the Assam-North-East Frontier Agency border.

    Sun Bin, If your next post consist of anything about how China retreated back behind McMahon Line, then my reply will still be this: The Sino-Indian bilateral Peace and Tranquillity Accords was signed by both sides, and boundary remain disputed, due to international pressure.

    Unless you have something to prove me wrong, otherwise please follow your own comment and look it up yourself.

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  7. don't listen to me, listen to the Brits and Yankees,
    and asia time

    read and judge for yourselves

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  8. anon,

    i failed to understand what you were trying to say. India's claimed boundary = MacMahon line.

    indian crossed even its own claimed border. china reacted but never cross its claimed border. then on the east side, it retreated back to behind india's claimed border.

    this is the simple piece of fact. what is it so difficult to understand.

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