Chandan Srivastava
Can you imagine a country where the government treats every resident as less a citizen and more a tool of the country’s foreign policy? There are two such countries in India’s neighborhood, which consider the citizen as the tool of their foreign policy – one is named Pakistan and the other is China.
The government of Pakistan, which runs under the shadow of the army and ISI, looks for the possibility of being Islamic jihadis among its citizens. There are various “Lashkars” for recruiting jihadi recruits, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Umar, Sipah-e-Sahba. With the help of these Lashkars, Pakistan sometimes fulfills its foreign-policy requirements with India and sometimes with Afghanistan.
The Communist government of China does the same thing, but not like Pakistan. China’s communist government finds the possibility of being a soldier in every citizen and, with a stroke of legal power, transforms civilians into a troop carrying out its policy of border-expansion. Last fortnight, China accomplished the same feat of converting civilians into proxy soldiers in its border area.
China’s new law for border areas
China’s parliament (national legislature) National People’s Congress (NCP) adopted a new law on 23 October for the purpose of protecting and using its land border. Article 1 of this law talks about the delineation and determination of China’s land border and Article 4 has declared China’s sovereignty and national unity-integrity as sacred and inviolable.
In addition, Article 10 talks about harmonizing border security and economic development. To put it in a nutshell, the law does not just talk about the military construction work to be done in view of the security and security needs of the border, but the development works in the border area with the intention of commercial or civilian facilities and the unity of China- It also mixes the question of integrity into it.
The new law will come into effect from January 2022
This new law, which is coming into force from January 1 next year, is giving many responsibilities to the Chinese government regarding the border areas. According to this law, it will be the responsibility of the Chinese government to take effective steps to strengthen the construction works in view of the security of the border areas.
The government will have to help in the economic and social development of the border areas and open the means of communication with the outside world. At the same time, the Chinese state will have to promote efforts to strengthen the border line and make efforts to make the lives of its residents living in the border area happy.
Improving the quality of public services (such as electricity, water, roads, communication) in the border area, accelerating the construction of infrastructure, improving the living conditions of the people in such areas, and promoting production. Developing the area economically and strategically will also be the responsibility of the Chinese state according to the new law.
From the above, it may seem that the law is of course new, but there is nothing in it that the Chinese government has not been doing before. It may also seem that taking steps to protect the border line, making the lives of the residents of those areas happy and taking up construction work in view of this is a matter of any country’s own authority and its internal matter.
Diwali Shopping 2021 – 50,000 crore blow to China, people avoided Chinese goods on Diwali
There is no such thing as turning civilians into proxy soldiers, nor does the law say anything that seems to be treating citizens as tools of foreign policy promotion.
But, when one reads the objectives of the new law in the light of the India-China border dispute, this hidden side of it gets exposed.
The flip side of the new law: India at the center
One, the new law will be considered shocking because such a law has been made for the first time in the history of modern China, in which the Chinese Parliament has given special responsibilities on the state power regarding the border areas. Obviously, the new law is a sign of some new thinking related to China’s land border. What could be this new idea?
The first thing in this series is that India (and Bhutan) is at the center of China’s new law regarding the border area. China’s border with 14 countries (Mongolia, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam) in its 22,457 km extension has been the most controversial. Its border-line with India is 3488 km long. There are only two countries with a longer border line with China – Mongolia and Russia.
Except India, there is no country with which China’s land boundary line is undefined. It is only India (and India-protected Bhutan in the matter of border guarding) with whom China repeatedly engages in border disputes and trespasses.
The two countries have found ways to negotiate a settlement agreement to resolve the border dispute, and for decades there has been an agreement between the two countries that until the border dispute is resolved permanently, In the case of deployment of army or settlement of civilians in the border areas, the earlier position will be maintained.
This is the reason that whenever India talks with representatives of China for a temporary resolution of the dispute when the border dispute catches up, the Chinese army again goes to its old place of deployment in the event of an agreement.
This obligation of China to maintain the status quo has ended with the passage of the new law. By taking the guise of the new law, China can establish new settlements in its border area with India, erect new structures and in this order can occupy land by encroaching on Indian territory.
If India or any international fraternity in favor of India puts pressure on China, asking it to maintain the pre-eminent position on the border according to the mutual agreement between the two countries, then China can reject such demand with the argument that the Chinese military Not encroaching but following the order of her Parliament, this order (ie the new law) is inviolable for her. Meaning, with the help of the new law, China can hand over the development of the border area directly to its army.
Citizens becoming part of China’s expansionist policy
Second, the new law gives China an excuse to turn its citizens into pseudo-soldiers. Since the new law allows for new settlements in the border area and the creation of public facilities structures to make the lives of the citizens happy, China may on this pretext put the onus of land grabbing in the border area with India on its citizens.
IPOs in Samvat 2077:47 issue raised Rs 86,650 crore, 15 companies gave more than 100% return
Till now this work has been done by its army, but after the new law, China can forcefully take land grab from civilians, in which the army will be helpful from behind.
China secretly, has already been following this thinking, but after the law is enacted, it has the power to infiltrate the border area with India and establish settlements of its citizens and protect the unity-integrity of the border and the nation in the event of opposition. The logic of the argument has turned out to be a strong excuse for being an attacker on the front.
Recall here the news of the month of September this year, in which the United Nations Advisory Board of Global Counter Terrorism Council was quoted as saying that China has established 680 new villages in its border area with India.
According to this news, the setting up of new villages is an excuse to carry out Chinese intelligence and military activities because the residents of these new and so-called prosperous villages of China promote better Chinese lifestyle among the local Indian residents and in this order Helps in creating an anti-India mood in the local population.
Since the new law talks about setting up settlements in the border area and making the entire region prosperous, it would be difficult to accuse China of military-encroachment on the one hand after such a clever provision.
Secondly, it will be easy for China to say that as far as the settlements of Chinese citizens are there, there can be no talks about the land, because by doing so, one will violate the law made by the Chinese Parliament, and by the displacement of other citizens. Their interests will be affected.
Agreements signed with India ignored
The third thing in this series and the most important thing from India’s point of view is that in the last three decades, India has signed many agreements with China to resolve border issues and China’s new law ignores such bilateral agreements.
Since 1993, there have been five such important agreements between China and India, under which the two countries resolve mutual issues related to the border at the military and diplomatic level.
One of such agreements is the 1993 Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Harmony along the Line of Actual Control. This is called the “Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility Along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Area”.
The second agreement is related to the restoration of mutual trust between the armies of the two countries along the Line of Actual Control. It is called “Agreement between India and China on Confidence-Building Measures in the Military Field along the LAC”.
The third agreement dates back to 2005 and as the name suggests (Protocol on Modalities for Implementation of Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field Along LAC) deals with the implementation of confidence-building measures along the Line of Actual Control.
The 2012 agreement (Agreement on the Establishment of Key Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on Indo-China Border Affairs) talks about the modalities of mutual dialogue in border matters between the two countries. Similarly, the 2013 agreement focused on mutual cooperation in the matter of security of the border area (Border Defense Cooperation Agreement).
After the new law made by the Parliament of China regarding the security and development of the border area, the path of talks between India and China at the military and diplomatic level under the above mentioned five agreements will become much more difficult.
In the course of talks, China can say at any time and anywhere that our Parliament has drawn a lakshman-line for us in the matter of border dispute in order to protect the unity and integrity of the nation and we will do this or the other in the matter of border dispute. No one is ready to settle further on that point.
In the last two and a half years, China has renewed the border dispute related to India. After the violent clash in Galwan Valley in June last year (20 soldiers of India were martyred) the military relations between the two countries have become sour.
In this recent context of the conflict, if you try to read the intention of China’s new law, it will be seen that China is no longer willing to resolve the border dispute through dialogue. The new law is part of China’s renewed vision of perpetuating its trespassing stance and involving civilians along with the military in encroachment.
(The author is a socio-cultural affairs scholar)
.