China as fascist state: Brahma Chellaney

aug 21st

brahma is on the money as usual. china is the worst imperialist nation around. of course, the little missionary lambs they've seeded in india with small amounts of money can only see china with rose-colored glasses. i have long been of the opinion that china is the nazi state of the day, only worse, because they are a continent-sized state with a successful history of  recent imperialism (eg. tibet) which has whetted their appetite for more.

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Times of India, Sunday Debate, 21 August 2005

Should India consider China a friend or rival?

It is a rival as its rise challenges Asian and global security

Brahma Chellaney
Strategic affairs expert

No nation has done more to undermine Indian security than communist
China. In fact, no sooner had the communists come to power than they
extended China's military frontiers up to India by gobbling up Tibet.
Then, behind the cloak of Hindi-Chini bhai bhai rhetoric, they
furtively encroached on Indian territories before setting out to
"teach India a lesson". In recent years, their strategy has blended
containment with engagement. Pakistan's new Chinese-supplied cruise
missile epitomises their continuing antagonism.

China has shed ideology in favour of increasingly fervent nationalism.
But its friends in India remain ideologically indebted to it. Such is
their fidelity that they present a foe of India as a friend. Indeed,
they oppose India undertaking the very measures that are making China
powerful. As China dumps cheap manufactured goods in the Indian
market, its friends oppose India acquiring similar capability through
reform of antediluvian labour laws and open competition in
labour-intensive manufacturing. China relentlessly expands its nuclear
and missile armouries, while continuing its WMD aid to Pakistan. But
its uncritical friends unleash criticism against their own country's
counter-measures.

These China-lovers unabashedly portray China as a benign state, and
contend that the onus is on India to change its mindset. It is like
exhorting a victim to look up to its attacker. The apologists also
argue that if China wanted to do more against India, it could have
done so. It could have grabbed more territory in 1962, it could have
further aided Pakistan militarily, and it could have mounted
additional threats. Thus, according to their logic, India should look
at China positively. It is like urging a victim to be beholden for not
being raped again.

The appeasers believe the only alternative to appeasement is
provocation. They cannot grasp the simple truth that between
appeasement and aggravation lie a hundred different options. These are
the options India needs to explore and pursue vis-à-vis China — with
the same hardnosed realism and national-interest focus that Beijing
displays.

China's entrenched authoritarianism, vibrant centralised economy,
growing military and unbridled ambition to be "a world power second to
none" raises the spectre of an emerging fascist state. Its rise will
increasingly challenge Asian and global security. Just as India bore
the brunt of the rise of international terrorism because of its
geographical location, it will be frontally affected by the growing
power of a next-door opaque empire practising classical
balance-of-power politics.