China’s New Frontier

The disputed territories between China and India are located at a no-man’s land, where nothing grows and no one lives, on high altitude Himalayas, one of the most barren regions of the world. For centuries, the Himalayas was the focal point of military and political maneuvers between the three empires, the Russians in the north, the British on the subcontinent and the Chainese over the other side of the Himalayas. A constant and basic British aim was to keep the Russians as far possible from the plains of India. The British and Russians made Afghanistan to play as buffer between them to avoid collision, but their attempts to make China as a buffer failed as the Chinese refused to cooperate. Tibet remains the key to China’s policymaking on the India-China boundry dispute. The Chinese still suspect that India prefers an independent Tibet and coverty supports Tibetan separatists. Unless and unit Tibet is totally pracified and completely Sinicized as Inner Monogolia has been, Beijing world not want to give up the "barganing chip" that an unsettled boundary via-a-vis it with. Unlike China, Britain’s industrial revolutions and overseas expansion was driven by a military policy. According to Hobson, during the period from 1688-1815 Great Britain ws engaged in wars 52% of the time. Whereas the Chinese relied on their open markets and their superior peoduction and sophisticated commercial and banking skills, the British relied on tariff protection, military conquest, the systematic destruction of competitive overseas enterprises as well as the appropriation and plunder of local resources. China’s global predominance was based on ‘reciprocal benefits’ with its trading partners, while Britain relied on mercenary armies of occupation, savage repression and a ‘divide and conquer’ policy to foment local rivalries. In the face of native resistance, the British (as well as other Western imperial powers) did not hesitate to exterminate entire communities. It an essential reading for the students taking courses on this book.