Himalayan Times (1962)

January 14, 1962 Himalayan Times

Seven

CHINA'S BORDER DIPLOMACY

By R.

Chinsse diplioity in
relations with India,
whose politioal association
with China developed
mainly after 1940, is also
applicable to Nepal, Sik-
kim and Bhutan in the
true tradition of Chinese
politics and border diplo-
macy in Central Asia.
The subtle Chinese way
to claim Mount Everest
in reoent years has par-
ticularly been straining
the Nepalese sense of
honour and pride. The
experience of even the
astute King Mahendra,
the first Nepal.«e head
of State ever to visit
China, clearly bears out
the Cbiuesn tendency to
flout the rights and siis.
osptibilities of their Hi-
malayan neighbours.

Of all peoples on the
western frontier, who bore
the brunt of Chinese po
licy, the experience of
the Sikkimese reveals a
significant pattern of the
Chinese ways of seizing
and practising power in
the Himalaya borderlands.
Even the Oxford educated
Maharaj Kumar of Sik-
kim, Sidkyong Namgya),
who had widely travelled
in Europe and America,
bad, aooording to Capt.
W. F. O'Connor who es-
corted the young prince

RAHUL

on his lour through China
in the mid-winter of 1908,
an immense awe for the'
Manohu Conrt "...With-
out any great display of
foroe, ( hinese officials
know how to create an
atmosphere of superiority
and power, and to im-
press upon simple minded
aborigines like the Tibe-
tans the dignity of their
empire and the excellence
of their civilization. In
the oaae of Tibet, and
oognate races like the
Sikkimese and Bl utanese,
these impression were par-
ticularly strongly marked,
as all these people of
Mongolo d origin have
adopted many elements
of Chinese civilization in
their daily social life, and
ape the Chinese in num-
berless ways..." (On The
Frontier and Beyond, 1931).
Colonial Methods
The reprimand of the
Chinese Am ban in Lhasa
to the Ruler of Sikkim
in 1873, apropos the visit
of John Edgar (Deputy
Commissioner, Darjeeling)
to the frontier of Tibet
reflects all the tone* of
the Chinese oolonial im-
perial methods on the
Himalaya frontier: "Sik-
kim borders on Tibet.
You know our wishes and
our polioy. You are bound

to prevent the English
from crossing our frontier.
Yet it is entirtly your
fault—thanks to the roads
whioh you have made
for them—that they hare
conceived this project. If
you continue to aot thus,
it wilt not be good for
you. ., Henceforth you
must fulfil . your obliga-
tions and obey the com-
mands of the Dalai Lama
and the .Emperor." Ac-
tually, this marked the
utter disregard of the
speoial British position in
Sikkim under the Anglo-
Sikkimese treaty of 1861.

China's apologies to
Nepal, in the matter of
the Mustang border inci-
dent of June 28, 1960,
typifies another important
feature of her border dip-
lomacy. If anything un-
toward ever happens in
China's dealings there and
if it cannot be passed on
to a low ranking officer,
high Chinese officials al-
ways take the blame on
themselves—thereby< pre-
serving the dignity of the
head of Jtate. The pla-
cing of the. responsibility
of the killing of the Ne-
palese Army subedar on
a low-ranking officer, then
commanding a PLA de-
tachment on the Chinese
side of the Nepal-Tibet
frontier, was not for
rotbing, even though this
subtle Chinese posture did
not then fully satisfy the
Nepalese who have been