China’s long-cherished dream of breaking up India and New Delhi in slumber mode

Last month, former US President Barack Obama made some distressing comments about India. Speaking in an interview with CNN, Obama said there is "a strong possibility that India at some point starts pulling apart," if it fails to protect its Muslims.

This comment set the cat among the pigeons on Indian social media, with Indians rightly pointing out how Obama should be the last person on this planet to talk about the rights of Muslims. India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman too joined the fray and reminded him how the US, under his watch, bombed six Muslim countries and dropped more than 26,000 bombs in these countries.

But Obama’s foolish comments found unexpected buyers far away in Beijing. The Communist Party of China’s official mouthpiece, the Global Times published a piece late last month, endorsing Obama’s views on India’s handling of its minorities.

“The dichotomy of different ethnic and religious beliefs, along with the inability of minorities to participate in the country's development and the greater difficulty of having a sense of national identity, portends greater trouble for India in the future,” the tabloid noted. “India’s modernisation will not be sustainable and will always face the possibility of division,” it prophesied. The tone reflected more of ambition than concern.

It is true that following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, China has seen India as the only potential rival in East Asia. That explains why the Chinese establishment has long cherished the ambition of breaking up India.

In 2009, a Chinese military think tank brazenly floated the idea of breaking up India into 20-30 independent states. “If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up,” read the article posted on the website of the China International Institute for Strategic Studies. It suggested that China should help create divisions in India by supporting factions of the Assamese, Kashmiris and Tamilians.

Author of the report, Zhong Guo Zhan Lue Gang, also recommended Beijing join hands with the United Liberation Front of Asom to carve out an independent state of Assam from India.

Meanwhile, a letter surfaced in 2020 written by the radical group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) to China seeking help 'against' India that also shed light on possible links between Beijing and pro-Khalistan forces.

Later in 2021, the Global Times wrote that China had enough tools to shatter India’s illusion that it could capitalise upon the Taiwan card. “If India supports secessionist forces in China, the latter could as well support separatist forces in northeast India in an-eye-for-an-eye manner,” the Global Times warned. It added, “One of the measures could be not recognising Sikkim as a part of India," attributing the statement to Liu Zongyi, secretary-general of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies

To date, China continues to describe India’s Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh as “disputed territories. Beijing even boycotted the planned G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Jammu & Kashmir citing the same reason. China continues to oppose high-profile political visits to Arunachal Pradesh, by calling them a violation of China’s territorial integrity.

How has New Delhi returned the favour?

Unfortunately, it never did. Indian policymakers always feared ostracising China. The Dalai Lama and Tibetans still feel deprived of political freedom in India. India still remains silent on Taiwan, under the so-called one-China policy.

India’s decisions vis-à-vis China were directly influenced by US and other international factors in the past. For instance, following the rapprochement between China and US in the early 1970s, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) abandoned its ‘Tibet Program’ that sought to help Tibetans achieve independence from China. This orphaned India’s own ambition to help Tibet achieve statehood.

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However, as India’s political and economic muscles keep growing, its ability to pull off such anti-China designs on its own is also bound to improve. India’s engagement with Tibetan and Taiwanese leaders has marginally increased. It’s no longer taboo for an Indian prime minister to wish the Dalai Lama on his birthday. India has also welcomed Taiwan’s increased presence in India by allowing it to open a representative office in Mumbai. But, we must realise it is just the beginning. India needs to keep capitalising upon glaring fault lines rooted deep in Chinese society.

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As toxic as China appears to be on the international stage, it is as shallow from within as a nation. To put things into perspective, it spends more on maintaining internal security than on its defence budget. Just because it has donned itself in black through the great firewall of China, it doesn't help hide its internal divisions. Tibetans, Muslims from Xinjiang and Mongolians living under the oppressive rule of the Chinese communist party continue to strive for independence from the Chinese regime.

So, now it’s finally time for India to bite the bullet and finish what the Chinese started.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer)

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