Author: G Parthasarathy
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 28, 2009
URL: http://dailypioneer.com/179138/US-lets-China-act-belligerent.html
Non-proliferation ayatollahs in the USA, close
to the Democratic Party establishment, have recently been publishing 'revelations'
of Pakistan constructing two new plutonium reactors at its nuclear nerve centre,
Khushab. The timing and contents of these 'revelations' are intriguing. They
appeared just as a new Government was assuming office in New Delhi.
While claiming that these two new nuclear
reactors will substantially increase Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, and voicing
fears of a jihadi takeover in Pakistan, the authors are demanding that India
should immediately join Pakistan in stopping the production of fissile material
for weapons. This would serve China's aim of making India's nuclear weapons
programme totally Pakistan-centric and depriving the country of a credible
nuclear deterrent, which can safeguard us against Chinese challenges, overt
and covert.
On April, 23, 2009 the US-based Institute
of Science and International Security published satellite imagery taken from
Digital Globe, showing two large plutonium reactors being constructed in Khushab
near another plutonium reactor that was built by the Chinese in the 1990s.
The Americans know that China had supplied Pakistan with not only an un-safeguarded
40 MW plutonium reactor but also a plutonium reprocessing plant.
Moreover, as these reactors require 'heavy
water' and Pakistan's production facilities for this (built with Chinese assistance)
have limited capacity, the requirement of heavy water for these reactors is
evidently being met by diverting Chinese heavy water supplies to nuclear power
plants built with China's assistance in nearby Chashma.
China joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty in 1992 and thereafter pledged that it would stop supplies of all un-safeguarded
nuclear material and facilities to Pakistan. In 1991-1992, China also pledged
to abide by the Missile Technology Control Regime, thereby ruling out supplies
of missiles with a range of over 300 km.
But China continues to violate all these undertakings.
The plutonium reactors in Khushab now under construction are nothing more
than a continuation of the assistance China gave for Pakistan's first 40 MW
plutonium reactor.
Apart from having supplied Pakistan the designs
for their original uranium nuclear warheads, the ongoing Chinese assistance
to Pakistan's plutonium weapons facilities is obviously meant to enable it
to make more potent and miniaturised warheads. These can be fitted to the
Chinese designed Shaheen I and Shaheen II missiles, capable of targeting cities
across India.
Thus, when America's non-proliferation ayatollahs
start demanding that India should hold negotiations with Pakistan because
of threats arising to international security from China's unrestrained nuclear
and missile proliferation, New Delhi should tell them that they are barking
up the wrong tree. India is not going to allow the size or capabilities of
is nuclear and missile arsenals to be limited because of American unwillingness
to check unrestrained Chinese nuclear and missile proliferation.
The view of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
that Sino-American relationship is the "most important bilateral relationship
of the 21st century" has in recent days fuelled China's arrogance and
aggressiveness in its relations with India. Following the recent display of
its naval prowess, a senior Chinese naval officer revealed China's intentions
earlier this month when he suggested to the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet,
Admiral Timothy Keating, that the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean should
be regarded as spheres of predominant Chinese influence.
Admiral Keating was told: "You (the US)
take Hawaii East and we (China) will take Hawaii West and the Indian Ocean.
Then you need not come to the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean and we
will not need to go to the eastern Pacific". The recent move of a Chinese
fleet into the Indian Ocean, ostensibly in the name of dealing with piracy,
together with China's quest for facilities and bases from Gwadar in Pakistan
to Hambantota in Sri Lanka are obviously part of a long-term plan to dominate
the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean.
Chinese aggressiveness on its territorial
claims has also grown. Chinese scholars have spoken of 'liberating' southern
Tibet (Arunachal Pradesh) in the event of tensions between India and Pakistan.
China has moved to block loans to India amounting to $ 2.9 billion from the
Asian Development Bank because there is provision for assistance to development
projects in Arunachal Pradesh. If China did have reservations on this score,
it could have recorded them instead of blocking an entire country programme.
In Nepal, the Chinese have been fishing in
troubled waters, attempting to finalise a treaty with the Himalayan nation,
which obviously raises security concerns in India, and also by encouraging
Maoist plans to undermine democratic functioning of key institutions like
the Army and the judiciary. China has used its support for Myanmar in the
UN Security Council to undermine India's access to off shore gas.
As Mr Manmohan Singh commences his second
term in office, he will have to take note of the serious challenges that an
assertive China now poses across India's land borders and its maritime frontiers.
Given the ongoing US-China honeymoon, it would require imaginative diplomacy
to persuade the Obama Administration of our concerns on Chinese behaviour.
China has not hesitated to use force to enforce
its territorial claims on its disputed maritime boundaries with Vietnam and
Philippines. Under the UN Convention of the Law of the Seas, China was required
to intimate where its maritime frontiers lie earlier this month.
In its presentation, China has laid claim
to thousands of square miles of maritime territory in the South China Sea,
based on its unilateral claims to several offshore islands bordering Taiwan,
Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. When the Philippines
objected to Chinese claims, its envoy was summoned to receive a protest and
a high level visit to Manila was indefinitely postponed.
With India's Communist parties, which have
tacitly backed China's global ambitions and policies, no longer pulling the
strings of power, New Delhi should not be constrained in responding appropriately
to Chinese manoeuvres in India's neighbourhood. It is not India alone that
is concerned by China's 'rise'. Partnerships will have to be forged with Japan
and others to meet the challenges a resurgent and aggressive China poses,
even as India fashions policies to accelerate economic growth and develop
its conventional defences and nuclear capabilities.
