China’s state news media has welcomed new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a pragmatic new partner on economic matters, saying that as a regional leader, he had made four visits to Beijing seeking investment and even went to the trouble of printing his business cards in Chinese characters, in the auspicious color of red.
However, as the two giant neighbors attempt to reinvigorate their relationship with a series of top-level meetings this week, one image may interfere: that of a Tibetan man who was led to a front-row seat at Modi’s swearing-in last month.
He is Tibetan government-in-exile Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay, and a man who is rarely invited to official ceremonies for fear of provoking the wrath of China.
China has denounced the exiles and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as separatists, often curtailing diplomatic relations with foreign governments who receive them. On the day of the ceremony, Sangay was still smarting from a recent snub in Norway, and he was initially unsure what to make of the invitation on New Delhi.
“I thought: ‘Maybe I will get to sit at the back end, as long as I can sit in the shade.’ But then I showed them the ticket and they told me to go to the front,” said Sangay, head of the Central Tibetan Administration, which has been arguing for three traditionally Tibetan provinces to be granted “genuine regional autonomy” within China.
Sangay’s presence at the event — at the request of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the influential Hindu nationalist organization that began Modi’s political career decades ago — attracted little notice until last week, when China lodged a formal complaint with India, according to the Times of India.
It points to abiding tensions between the world’s two most-populous countries, focusing on their shared 4,057km border and dating back more than 50 years, to China’s territorial claim over Tibet.
Even as Modi pursues closer economic ties with China, there have been reminders of deep suspicion from India’s security establishment.
Modi’s new junior minister for internal security is from Arunachal Pradesh, a region claimed by China. And on Sunday, the day Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) arrived in New Delhi, an Indian newspaper reported that China has been building up a military presence in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, citing a classified document leaked by the Indian Intelligence Bureau.
“The basic outlook is that we want to do more on the business side. That doesn’t mean they are going to be different on security issues,” said C. Raja Mohan, a leading strategic affairs analyst in New Delhi.
China’s public statements since Modi took office have been uniformly positive, and Wang told the Hindu, a daily newspaper, that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had “personally instructed him” to visit India soon after Modi took office.
China is offering to help India set up special economic zones and promote industrial development clusters, and has already sent a delegation to inspect prospective sites.
However, tension over border issues was not far away.
On Sunday morning, before Wang arrived for his first scheduled meetings, security forces in New Delhi took up positions around a Tibetan neighborhood in north Delhi.
Several hundred activists from the Tibetan Youth Congress, who had gathered to stage a protest outside the Chinese embassy, were locked in and unable to leave, Tenzing Jigme of the Tibetan Youth Congress said.
Two years ago, during a visit by then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), a 26-year-old Tibetan exile set himself on fire to protest China’s policies in Tibet and later died. Graphic footage of his act was seen around the world, providing the exile community with a rallying point.
Among the strongest advocates for Tibet’s exile movement in New Delhi is Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Pemba Tsering, the speaker of parliament in the Tibetan exile government-in-exile in Dharamsala, said the invitation sent the message that “we will not see a downgrading in Tibet as an issue for India” with the change of governments.
Mohan said that support for the Tibetan exiles ran deep in Indian society, regardless of party.
However, he said that Delhi was not likely to ever return to the forceful advocacy of the 1960s, when the Indian army fought a brief war with China over border incursions.
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