Are you sure you want to adopt such a tone in your posts? I may not agree with everything Sampanviking says in his posts, but I would never attempt to label his posts as 'mindless rhetoric'. Why are you trying to behave like a troll? Learn to disagree without resorting to calling names - attack the ideas not the man.
I have refrained from commenting as I believe it is your right to express you opinion and your possible concurrence with the thoughts expressed therein. BTW, I found your link to be a less than useful perspective in understanding the future of Sino-Indian relations, so I am not surprised at his reaction.
And since you are interested, why don't you start the ball rolling by identifying the issues at stake. In particular, the genesis of the sources of disputes and the all important external geopolitical context.
OPSSG, I tend to be relatively straightforward when debating issues, when i see evidence of BS I call it and then move on to engage in discussion. It's just tiring and a tad discouraging to see PRC apologists pop up as soon as one attempts to discuss Sino-Indian relations in a civilized manner. You object to me naming sampanviking's post mindless rhetoric, but if you reread it you will see that that is exactly what it is. A sample:
"China would have more sympathy if it were dealing with a genuine historical border, but its annoyance is fed by the fact that the boundary is an arbitrary line drawn by a drunken Irishmen in the service of the Raj!.
To China to argue over a boundary bequeathed by former colonial occupiers is demeaning and its message to India is, bluntly, to gain a little more self respect and grow up."
If this isn't PRC propaganda then what is? As for the accusation of not contributing to the debate, if you reread my posts you will see that I actually did ask several questions regarding Sino-Indian relations. (Whereas you contributed nothing I'm afraid to say
)
Anyway, moving on now-no hard feelings my friend.
You wished to know more about the main issues behind Sino-Indian relations. Here is a brief backgrounder in the hope that now we can engage in proper debate. I hope this will be of help to you.
Main issues of contention:
The border issue:
Both countries share the longest disputed frontier in the world (more than 2100 miles), which stretches from Northern Kashmir, to the Northeastern Province of Arunachal Pradesh. In 1962, rising tensions on both sides of the border led to a lightning Chinese assault, which resulted in a humiliating defeat for India, and the Chinese occupation of 16,500 square miles of territory previously owned by its transhimalayan neighbour. India also accuses Pakistan of having illegally ceded a slice of disputed Kashmiri territory, in Aksai Chin, to the PRC in 1963. China, for its part, after having more or less relinquished its claim over Sikkim, periodically declares that the entirety of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to the historical 'Greater Tibet', and therefore falls under its jurisdiction.
China's 'all-weather' friendship with Pakistan:
China has been Pakistan's staunchest ally over the years, bolstering its conventional military capabilites, as well as actively assisting it in the establishment of its nuclear weapons programme from the late 80s onwards, building all three of Pakistan's first three nuclear power plants and providing it with ready to launch M-9, M-11 and Dong Feng 21 ballistic missiles.
India's growing proximity to the US:
During the Cold War, New Delhi's relations with Washington were frequently marked by a fair degree of acrimony, largely due to the evolving strategic environment. To summarise at the risk of simplifying an incredibly complex period of diplomatic history, the United States viewed India as little more than the Soviet Union's regional surrogate, and New Delhi strongly disapproved of Washington's proximity to its CENTO ally, Pakistan, and of its growing ties with the PRC after Kissinger's furtive visit to Beijing in 1971.
Times have changed, however, since the end of the Cold War, and India’s emergence as major regional power has given it a lot more strategic significance than before. India’s blue-water navy, nuclear capabilities, powerful armed forces, high rate of economic growth and huge economic potential are all factors that make India loom a lot larger on America’s radar screen. India is also a vibrant and multiethnic parliamentary democracy and, as such, is far more attractive to the current American administration than other forms of authoritarian regimes in Asia. Containing China is just one aspect of the budding strategic partnership in-between the world’s largest and oldest democracy. Indeed, the US views India as a vital partner in the upholding of maritime security in vitally important sea lanes, and as an ally in the war on terror with a sizeable degree of experience in counterterrorism and often convergent threat perceptions, both being the target of Islamist terrorist cells.
The 'String of Pearls':
Pentagon analysts have famously dubbed China’s ‘string of pearls strategy’, its plan to acquire several strategically placed ports of call, naval bases and listening posts in friendly countries in order to protect the billions of dollars worth of trade that pass through strategically salient sea lanes such as the Strait of Hormuz or the Malacca Straits. For the Chinese military, who live in fear that in the event of a major conflict with the US, a naval blockade would suffice to cut off nearly all of China’s energy supplies overnight; the Chinese Navy’s deployment in areas such as the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea is a question of future survival and as such, entirely legitimate in nature. To the Indian strategic community, however, the 'string of pearls' is a 'constricting noose', threatening to contain and encircle India in its own backyard. I will bring this all up again, and in far greater detail when I do some blog entries on the Navy sometime later on in the month.
Signs of normalisation:
Surging trade:
Bilateral trade has been surging forward at a breakneck speed over the past few years, attaining 29 billion USD in the first six few months of 2008, which represents an increase of more than 69% over the figures at the same period last year. China has now overtaken the US to become India's number one trading partner.
Mutual Concessions:
India frequently reiterates China's sovereignty over Tibet, which is another extremely sensitive issue in Sino-Indian relations, as India harbours the Tibetan government in exile at Dharamsala; and China, for its part, has tacitly recognized India's claims over Sikkim. China has also attempted to appear more neutral in its official declarations during Indo-Pakistani conflicts, (such as during the Kargil War in 1999), even though behind the scenes it continues to bolster Pakistan's military apparatus.
The multiplication of bilateral visits:
A sustained level of high-ranking bilateral visits has ensured a certain new 'comfort level' in Sino-Indian dealings. At each meeting, a plethora of MOUs( Memorandums of Understanding), CBMs (Confidence Building Measures) and other agreeements are signed, on issues as varied as the sharing of hydrological data to the mutual reduction of troops along certain areas of the LAC (the line of actual control, i.e, the informal border).
