CHINA RILED BY OFFICIAL IN NEW DELHI
His reference to Beijing as "Threat Breaks Taboo"
by John F. Burns
The New York Times - The International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, May 6, 1998
NEW DELHI - Defense Minister George Fernandes has breached a longstanding' taboo by declaring publicly that China, not Pakistan, is India's "potential threat No. 1." He also said India should move to declare itself a nuclear weapons state if a review of military policy by India's new government supports his view. In a flurry of remarks over the weekend, Mr. Fernandes said India should awake to the fact that Chinese military activities and alliances, notably those involving Pakistan, Burma and Tibet, had begun to "encircle" India. [A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhu Bangzao, reacted strongly to the remarks, saying Tuesday that "the so-called argument that China is the biggest potential threat to India is absolutely ridiculous and is not worthy of refutation," The Associated Press reported from Beijing. [Mr. Zhu also said the comments could '.'seriously sabotage the favorable atmosphere for developing friendly relations."] Mr. Fernandes urged Indians to abandon the "carelessness and casual attitude" tha
t he said had characterized national security in recent decades, and to face up to the reality of what China was doing. Referring to the brief border war between India and China in 1962, which ended a period of amity between the two nations, Mr. Fernandes said: "This is where our country has made mistakes in the past. We made those mistakes in the early 1950s, and we paid the price in the 1960s. I think things have not changed." He added: "To underplay the situation across the Himalayas is not in the national interest; in fact, it can create a lot of problems for us in the future." Indian newspapers gave front-page prominence Monday to Mr. Fernandes's remarks, which were made Sunday in a television interview, in remarks to reporters and in a formal lecture. Although Indian military experts outside the government have voiced concern about China's growing might, government leaders have generally avoided the issue. But Mr. Fernandes, named to the defense post in the Hindu nationalist-led coalition government th
at took power six weeks ago, has made a touchstone of his warnings about China. Soon after taking office, he said he had learned from military briefings that Chinese troops based in southeastern Tibet had set up a helicopter landing pad inside Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state in one of several Himalayan regions where there is a border dispute between the two countries. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee moved quickly to head off the controversy, saying there was no truth to the claim of a Chinese helipad on Indian territory. But Aft. Fernandes, who heads a regional Socialist party that is one of the coalition partners in Aft. Vajpayee's 14-party government, did not retract his statement, and moved well beyond it in his remarks last weekend. On Monday, Indian critics noted that Mr. Fernandes has a reputation as a radical on foreign and domestic policy, and has for many years adopted an adversarial attitude toward China, particular on Chinese policy on Tibet. "The art of diplomacy lies in increasing the num
ber of our friends and reducing the number of our adversaries," said K. Natwar Singh, a foreign policy spokesman for the opposition Congress (1) Party. "The defense minister is doing exactly the opposite." Mr. Fernandes's warnings began in a lecture Sunday in New Delhi in commemoration of V.P. Krishna Menon, who resigned as India's defense minister during the India-China war in October 1962, when he was widely accused of having underestimated the threat posed by a Chinese troop buildup on the border between Tibet and India. But the measured tones used in the lecture gave way later to more forceful remarks to reporters and in a television interview. In a transcript of the remarks provided by the network, Home TV, Mr. Fernandes outlined the Chinese military activities that he said threatened India. "China has provided Pakistan with both missile as well as nuclear knowhow," the transcript said. "China has its nuclear weapons stockpiled in Tibet right along our borders. They are not directed only against India."
Mr. Fernandes said India would have to make "real economic sacrifices," presumably in increased military expenditures, if it was to counter the Chinese threat. "We have become a very soft people, and we must realize that nations are not built through soft options, nor are the country's frontiers secured by a soft line," he said. "One has to be willing to live a hard life".
