China Gilgit gambit is strategic says expert - Hindustan Times

China Gilgit gambit is strategic says expert - Hindustan Times

China Gilgit gambit is strategic says expert

Indo-Asian News Service

Washington, September 02, 2010First Published: 23:26 IST(2/9/2010)

Last Updated: 23:28 IST(2/9/2010)

China has massive presence in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said a US-based activist from Gilgit who added that massive investments were made by Beijing in that frontier region to expand the Karakoram Corridor as a strategic pathway. Washingon-based political activist Senge H. Sering, a former visiting fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), warned the Indian government about the Chinese presence over the years in Pakistani Kashmir.

Sering has spoken about massive investments made by China in the frontier region to expand the Karakoram Corridor as a strategic pathway to the sea lanes linking to West Asia.

Highlighting the multifaceted character of Chinese presence in the Gilgit-Baltistan province, Sering said China-Pakistan cooperation in the corridor includes expansion of the Karakoram Highway (KH), construction of a parallel railway line as well as oil and gas pipelines, which will give China rapid connectivity to Pakistani ports lying in the gateway to the Strait of Hormuz and Suez Canal.

The region's close proximity to Afghanistan, Tajikistan and India, in addition to Tibet and Xinjiang, gives China diplomatic, strategic, logistical and political gains, he said.

He added that by linking the KH to Pakistani ports like Gwadar and Ormara, China will not just gain a strategic footprint and access to Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf but also could significantly influence the geopolitics and trade in the Indian Ocean Region as well as Central Asia.

Sering stated that the Gwadar-Karakoram Corridor combination endows China with a massive logistical advantage by significantly reducing the original distance of 16,000 km to a mere 2,500 km for the Chinese industrial areas to the Persian Gulf.

The activist warned that when linked to the upcoming Urumqi-Beijing rail link, the commute time from central and eastern China to the Pakistani ports will come to a "mere few hours".

Kashmir is considered disputed simply because Indian propaganda machinery is non-existent. No one dares dispute Tibet, or the raid on Afghanistan. It is our own fault that we have the Kashmir problem. We lack vision, we lack the courage to clearly state that we will not meet any demands that have a communal-religious basis (thank our votebank politics for that) or that Kashmir has always been a part of India, and there is no reason for India to let go of its own territory, and that the rabid fundamentalists are the ones who need to go.

Though the Chinese designs of digging into Pakistan through POK, linking Karakoram highway with Aksai Chin and East China, now stretching it to Gilgit, Baltistan in POK, unfolds China's aim of enjoying supremacy in the region, it also unfolds its ambition of having access to the gulf countries in the Arabian sea. To acvhieve its strategic and military control of the entire region, Chinese PLA combat troops in large numbers are stationed in POK, Gilgit, Baltistan where Chinese are building roads, tunnels and laying rail lines to improve the communication net work. Once their development goal is achieved, Chinese will be able to transport military hardware, including missiles, petrol/diesel tankers and other equipment/heavy machinery freely into Paksitan. This is certainly a caufor concern for India. Apart from establishing its strategic and militay hold of the area, China will trade freely into Afghanistan, Iran and central Asian countries.

And what our Government is doing. In stead of solving the problems, it is creating more. How? See Kashmir of today. They still want to talk to Pakistan on Kashmir and accept it as disputed area. They have not been able to give proper response to China who is giving stapled visa to Kashmiris. And our Govt. is accepting these stapled visas. Why don't they give stapled visas to visitors from Tibet. Because Pt. Nehru accepted it as part of China inspite of their back biting. Policies can be changed in the interest of the nation.

The Champions of Vote Bank Politics are either unable to distinguish between impoverished local converts & affluent Royal Class who wield authority over them OR they themselves are responsible for alienation of minorities by perpetually treating them as a separate group & keeping them in a perpetual imaginary fear.

If India cannot get back occupied Kashmir, then why this outcry over Chinese involvement there? We have practically given up on it, dont even have the spine to confront the traitors within our own country because we are "secular", dare not get much needed help from experts such as Israel for fear of offending certain people who live in this country but have a soft corner for nations that seek to harm us. Just saying "entire Kashmir is ours" for 60 years does not make it ours, either you take steps to get it back, or stop making a fuss over what Pakistan does with held Kashmir.