Posted on 07/06/2006 6:38:54 PM PDT by blam
Opening of Silk Road weaves India closer to China
By Catherine Elsworth
(Filed: 07/07/2006)
To the music of military brass bands, China and India set five decades of hostility behind them yesterday, opening a long-closed Silk Road pass across the Himalayas.
Both governments enthused about improving trade between the two rising powers of Asia, which is surprisingly low for growing economies with a population of more than a billion people each.
A Chinese trader greets Indian soldiers on the Silk Road
But the opening agreement restricts border trade to items such as goat fur and yak tails, on the Chinese side, and carpets, alcohol and cigarettes on the Indian side.
Indians can also export rice and barley to China, while China can send electric bicycles in the opposite direction.
The diplomatic ramifications may be much greater. China is seeking to improve relations with a series of former foes on its more remote boundaries in order to stabilise and develop its fractious western regions.
The Nathu-La Pass, meaning "Listening Ear" and standing at 15,000ft, was closed in 1962 after China's brief invasion of its neighbour.
"Today is a historic day," said Pawan Kumar Chamling, the chief minister of Sikkim, the border state on the Indian side. "A contact that started centuries back between our two civilisations is being re-established today."
Agreement to reopen the pass was signed by the two governments in 2003. At the same time, although there was no formal announcement of a change of the Beijing government's position, Chinese maps began to show Sikkim as part of India.
Until then, China regarded it as an independent state. Although there are two other border crossings, this was the point at which nearly all trade took place before 1962.
On the Chinese side of the border is the "Autonomous Region" of Tibet, which the Beijing authorities are seeking to draw more closely under their economic umbrella.
Last Saturday, the railway line to Lhasa was opened, which the government wants to extend towards the Nathu-La Pass. Sikkim's tens of thousands of Tibetan Buddhists have welcomed the opening of the pass, which will enable them to visit the monasteries and temples of their faith's homeland more easily. But China also has its eyes on Dharamsala, the Indian home of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan government-in-exile and thousands of other Tibetans who have fled its rule.
The pass has historical significance because the explorer Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband launched the British invasion of Tibet through Nathu-La in 1904.
Tidying up old border disputes, and the diplomatic relations that went with them, has been a prime concern of the new Communist Party leadership that came to power in Beijing in 2002. It has also settled borders with Russia and in Central Asia, where improved relations have also increased trade.
This has led to accusations that Central Asian states such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have agreed to hand over dissidents and activists to the Chinese authorities for punishment.
"If there's an improvement in relations, we very much hope that this isn't going to change the position of Tibetans in India," said Matt Whitticase, researcher for the Free Tibet Campaign.
"I'm sure the Chinese will put as much diplomatic pressure on the Indian government as possible if they see any sign of weakness."
Some Indian officials are also believed to be wary about the reopening of the pass.
On the Indian side, the opening was seen as a "symbolic gesture" whose political implications far outweigh economic consequences.
Both sides are verbally committed to developing unrestricted trade - which a study by Sikkim's government estimates could be worth £71 million a year by 2020.
The Indian defence establishment is cautious about the opening, with defence sources telling an Indian newspaper, the Hindustan Times, that they feared infiltration of Chinese spies into Sikkim.
Tibet is already among the most heavily militarised regions of China.
Indian strategists are preoccupied with what they see as the gradual "encirclement" of India and south Asia by China, which has improved ties with India's neighbours, including Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Now China has a silk road to send in spies into India.
I guess we'd have to ask Bill what the going rate for Yak Tail is these days.
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