Posted on 09/22/2014 2:34:58 AM PDT by Olog-hai
President Xi Jinping should find the “handshake across the Himalayas” a lot warmer than usual when he starts his India trip today.
As India prepares to overcome the reflexive suspicion of its giant neighbor and open the floodgates to Chinese capital, and Xi responds by opening the checkbook, relations between the two Asian giants are set for, as India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval puts it, an “orbital jump”. […]
China, which (Modi) sees as his economic role model and has visited four times, in particular rolled out the red carpet. […]
“There are two factors pushing India towards China. The idea that we need the US in a unipolar world is out. With China’s rise, Russia’s resurgence and the global financial crisis, multipolarity has returned to India’s foreign policy outlook,” said Zorawar Daulet Singh, co-author of India-China Relations: The Border Issue and Beyond. “This ongoing shift away from a US-centric foreign policy has gained momentum as a result of Modi’s Asia-centric views. He plainly rejects the US approach of containing China. In the previous dispensation under Manmohan Singh, there was a degree of reticence vis-à-vis China for fears of US retaliation. Under Modi, there is greater assertiveness.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
I had not expected this of Modi, unless this is a case of keep your friends close and your enemies closer. In that case he is playing some kind of chess game.
I do recall him talking about bringing to India a “Thatcherite revolution” re: Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s comment about Gorbachev?
The question is, whose tune is the PLA marching to? Xi Jinping is also the head of the military commission. Many here in India suspect that this was the Chinese way of testing Modi. If so, they picked the wrong guy at a time when the US and Japan are both courting him. One fallout is that a Chinese official media team coming to India for "interaction" with Indian media, suddenly had their permissions scrapped.
If his economic policies match that of China, then he’s as far away from Thatcher as one can get.
A while back, the European Union was saying that they wanted their own George Washington, but given their economic and political dogma (they have a parliament that can’t even write laws), is it really Washington they want?
It’s possible that Xi is giving certain people in the PLA a long rope.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1597643/pla-reshuffle-strengthens-xi-jinpings-hand-corruption-fight
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/china-s-xi-demands-absolute-loyalty-from-pla-114092201008_1.html
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