An article advocating the dismemberment of India on a Chinese website last week threatens to seriously damage Chinese-Indian relations. The gist of it is that historically India never existed, that it is ready to fall apart and that China should work actively to that end, splitting it into 20 or so independent states. These would include Assam, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu; Bangladesh should have West Bengal; meanwhile China would “bring into its fold” Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan.
India, understandably and rightly, takes great exception to these ideas — and so should everyone else in Asia. Quite apart from the fact that they indicate a mindset in China that sees India as the archrival that has to be destroyed, they also envisage Chinese domination of Asia. There are clearly those in China with an imperialist agenda.
The question is whether this is government opinion. Initially thought to be connected to a government think tank, it turns out that the website is run by a private one; the confusion was in both having much the same name. That, however, does not put an end to the matter. The problem is that although some Chinese officials have privately rubbished the article saying that in no way does it reflect Chinese policy, the Chinese government has said nothing, perhaps in the hope that the problem will go away. That is a mistake.
The Chinese authorities are famous for protesting bitterly whenever they think that other states or private organizations elsewhere have interfered in their internal affairs. By saying nothing when the boot is on the other foot may give the impression that Beijing supports this imperialist nonsense.
A political website such as this could not exist in China without official blessing. Beijing is quick to shut down anything that goes counter to its policy or embarrasses the country. This website has most certainly done that. Yet there has been no move against the site.
As for the site owner, his attack on the Indian media for being upset about such aggressive proposals and his claim that he was simply publishing the views of an ordinary Chinese citizen are wholly unacceptable. He cannot hide behind such a lame excuse. Imagine if a newspaper in the US published an article by a white supremacist calling for black Americans to be disenfranchized or stripped of their citizenship, it would never get away with it. The Chinese think tank director has been wholly irresponsible peddling such dangerous and aggressive ideas. He called his think tank the same as an official one in hope that people would take it seriously. He has no right to complain when they do just that.
In this situation, the Chinese government has to publicly distance itself from these malevolent ideas, which if ever attempted could trigger nuclear war in Asia. All it has to do is say that this is not Chinese policy and take down the website. It does not have the option of doing nothing.
