Indians! Wake Up, Even Now - 4

Is India really a major power?

The most telling picture of India’s standing vis-à-vis China in US eyes was that taken at the G-20 meeting held in Washington in mid-November. It was a group photograph of all the leaders of the G-20. Standing in the front row were obviously leaders who mattered to Washington. At the centre was George Bush. To his right was Brazil’s President, Da Silva, and to his left, China’s President Hu Jintao. India’s Prime Minister was among those standing meekly behind. In US minds, his ranking was obviously low. One can very well understand Bush’s dilemma. China just cannot be ignored. China now has the largest stockpile of international currency, amounting to one trillion five hundred thousand dollars. And it has already announced a $ 600 billion package to help revive US economy. That is two times the size of India’s foreign exchange reserves that amount to some $ 300 billion. 

The US has a trade deficit with China that goes back to several years, averaging about $ 250 billion annually. In comparison the deficit with India is only about $ seven to eight billion which is peanuts. As is not so well-known, Chinese goods have taken over 60 per cent of the US internal market. One is reminded of the days, in the 1930s, when the Indian market was flooded with Lancashire texiles. It was to fight the drain of Indian wealth that Gandhi advocated swadeshi and Khadi. Americans were happy to have access to cheap goods manufactured in China not realising that they were damaging their own economy thereby. The unspoken feeling was that Chinese firms were being financed by American capital. American financiers were thinking that they were smart to invest in China. 

America had opened its doors to Chinese goods without any restrictions. Now it is paying for its folly. If Chinese imports had been regulated, US consumers may have been deprived of cheap goods, but it would have prevented large scale financial dislocations and unemployment in the US. The chicken are now coming home to roost. Another leader to stand in the front row with Bush is the Saudi Arabian ruler. The US has been paying heavily for Saudi oil. But the Saudis import hardly anything from the US. As with China so with Saudi Arabia, the US trade deficit is enormous. The Chinese must be laughing their heads off at American stupidity. It is said that this matter of restricting entry of cheap Chinese goods was not discussed at the meeting of the G-20. And quite understandably, China would have protested. So China has grown rich at America’s expense and Bush has been reduced to economic servility. It is pathetic. 

The truth is that China has exploited its low-paid workers to enrich its treasury. Workers in China can’t strike. Workers in India can. Workers demand appropriate wages in India. According to Labour in West Bengal (2006), 0.62 million mandays were lost in Bengal due to strikes. Managements declared lockouts accounting for 20.73 million mandays. How can India compete with ruthless China in such circumstances? China is rich at the expense of its workers. But that it is willing to do in the larger interests of the country. Or such is the claim. 

The situation in China is grim, but not revealed. But some facts came to be known at a seminar held in Delhi in October this year attended by renowned Russian academicians who have specialised in Chinese studies, notable among them being Mikhail Titarenko who had spent years in China and speaks Chinese fluently and Dr Tatiana Shaumiyan, a noted Orientalist historian. The seminar got some astounding insights into the functioning of China during interaction between the participants. 

According to the Russian experts, the per capita income of Chinese mostly living in the interior is less than one dollar a day or about Rs 40. As many as 200 million Chinese had sold out their land for a pittance to become landless labourers. That said, the Russian scholars explained why Chinese labour is so cheap and projects can be carried out at minimal expenditure. The labourers had no rights. They had to sweat it out. Only, that enriched the national treasury.

The annual trade turnover of China has crossed the $ two trillion mark. China manufactured everything including cars, western brand watches like the Rolex or whatever else, to sell them in international markets. Titarenko told the seminar: If they (the Chinese leaders) forget the problems of their own people, they will meet the same fate of the erstwhile Soviet Union”. The State was unbelievably powerful. 

According to the Washington Post, when the Beijing Olympics took place, a million and more construction workers were pushed out of the capital so that their poverty-struck countenances would not be noticed by foreigners. The whole thing was ridiculous, but that is China. More than a million cars were banned from the streets to reduce traffic and make foreigners feel comfortable. Can such a thing happen ever in India? It is with such an imperious China that India has to contend. The government is ruthless to its own people. What can Indian expect from Beijing in the circumstances? Can it be trusted? It apparently has no sense of grace. Its behaviour is crude. Mao wanted to teach India a “lesson” and attacked India in 1962 for no other reason than to show who is militarily strong, when India was loudly acclaiming Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai. 

China’s role during the Nuclear Supply Group (NSG) meeting in Vienna was close to hostile. Beijing showed great reluctance to endorse the NSG’s waiver on the nuclear deal and instead, sought to advocate Pakistan’s plea to get similar treatment, even knowing Islamabad’s black record of nuclear proliferation. It is even helping Bangladesh to build up a nuclear arsenal when it should be knowing that Dhaka can have only one target: India. On October 14, 2008 China signed a border pact with Russia, even while making impossible claims to Arunachal Pradesh. Shri Pranab Mukherjee has sought to call off China’s bluff, but what India should realise is that politeness on its part is mistaken for weakness and a lack of will to defend its borders. Result: Chinese bullying. 

India went out of its way to acknowledge Chinese sensitivity to mega multinational naval exercises being held in the Bay of Bengal by restricting this year’s Malabar Series of naval exercises to the partner country, the US rather than opening it up to other nations as was the case last year. Why should India have been so obliging? China may be an aspirant to Superpowerhood. But India must make it known to Beijing that it is not far behind and will not accept bullying. At the same time India must demand more respect from the US. What is it afraid of?

Article By  M.V. Kamath

source: www.organiser.org