Whatever may be the public pronouncements of Indian diplomats and politicians, India has reasons to be worried about China. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing the Combined Commanders Conference referred to above, said, “We cannot also ignore the strategic cooperation that Pakistan has secured from China in many ways. We cannot rule out the desire of some countries to keep us engaged in low intensity conflict with some of our neighbours as a means of getting India bogged down in low level equilibrium”. China continues its assistance to Pakistan in nuclear and missile technologies. It was a Chinese bomb design that A.Q. Khan was selling to Libya. It is this behaviour of China that makes major powers worry about an Asia solely dominated by Chinese might.

Such a justified perception about China presumably led to the joint statement of May 1 2007, by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Japanese Foreign Secretary Taro Aso, and Japanese Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma when they spoke about a common strategic objective of continuing to build upon partnerships with India to advance areas of common interest and increased cooperation, recognising that India’s continued growth is inextricably linked to the prosperity, freedom and security of the region.

China is worried about the enhancement of India’s relations with other powers lest it should lose its flourishing market with those countries. China was closer to the US than India was, and during his visit to China in 1998 President Clinton even talked about China’s legitimate interests in the subcontinent. In economic terms, China is closer to the US and Japan than India is. China and its followers would prefer India to be isolated and subjected to technology apartheid as it was in the years of the Cold War when the US and the West helped to build up China.

... contd.