brahma chellaney: Broken principles

jun 15th, 2007

more on chinese perfidy. and our 'beloved leaders' genuflect to these monsters.

this article must be on brahma's blogsite. see the blogroll on the
left. i am only forwarding a para or two, and he did not send me a
URL.

i really like that quote from sardar patel. i too had used the quote
when i wrote about 'the sacrifice of tibet' on my other blog
rajeev2007.wordpress.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brahma Chellaney

Chinese Diplomacy: Make Principles to Lull Your Foe

Unprincipled Principles

Brahma Chellaney

Asian Age, June 16, 2007

One passion of Chinese diplomacy is to go in for numbered policy
pronouncements, like the "10-pronged strategy" unveiled in the joint
declaration with India during President Hu Jintao's visit last
November. Another fetish is to enunciate diplomatic principles with
another state and later, at an opportune time, reinterpret them
unilaterally to add force to Chinese claims and ambitions.

Defining high-sounding principles to advance bilateral relations or
dispute resolution helps Beijing to hold the other side to basic
parameters, including a one-China policy, and foster a belief that the
enunciation of cadenced concepts is progress by itself. Yet the idea
behind formulating such principles is to bind the other party to them
more than oneself. The principles devised are invariably so general
and nebulous that Beijing, in any event, has ample room to reinterpret
them or emphasize a single principle over the rest.

.... deleted

Sardar Vallabhai Patel was the first Indian leader to grasp the
enormity of the challenge from China. What he wrote 57 years ago still
resonates today: "We have to take note of a thoroughly unscrupulous,
unreliable and determined power practically at our doors… Any friendly
or appeasing approaches from us would either be mistaken for weakness
or be exploited in furtherance of their ultimate aim."