Must break away from our zero-sum equation with China: Congress MP

Ajay Banerjee

Chandigarh, December 2

China, its military growth and economic rise was discussed during the Military Literature Festival at Sukhna Lake here today. The theme for this year’s event is ‘World in turmoil and lessons learnt from history’.

Member of Parliament Manish Tewari and former member of the National Security Advisory Board Lt Gen SL Narsimhan (retd) discussed two separate nuances — sorting out the pending boundary issue and correctly reading the growth of China in the Indian context.

The two, along with Col TPS Hundal (retd), were part of discussion on topic “How do India and China face off today in terms of weapons technology and self-reliance”.

Tewari said India needed to break away from its zero-sum relationship with China. “We need to be ready to negotiate the boundary issue,” he said.

“The country needs to be made aware that in negotiations, there will be a give and take of territory,” said Tewari, adding “an opinion that India will have to give away more territory than what China ceded is wrong”. In boundary negotiations with other countries, China claimed much more territory and the final settlement was lesser, he said.

“We need to make a fundamental change in our thinking to differentiate between additional territory and security,” said the MP.

Lt Gen Narsimhan concurred with Tewari on China’s boundary negotiations with other countries, adding China had even opted for 50:50 agreements in negotiations. He also spoke about vulnerabilities of China but cautioned against making assumptions without calculating its end result.

China’s spending on military is more than that of 17 Indo-Pacific countries put together, said Tewari, who has served as a minister in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet. He reeled off numbers comparing China’s and India’s economic growth trajectory since 1976.

Lt Gen Narsimhan was specific on China’s growing military technology, saying Beijing had launched a “quantum satellite” and was working on artificial intelligence and microwave and laser weapons.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is playing a direct role in incubating emerging technologies and in developing ties with private enterprises and research institutes for military modernisation. These include potential military applications, including on AI and advanced robotics, semiconductors and advanced computing, biotechnology, hypersonic weapons, advanced materials etc.

The event was inaugurated by Western Army Commander Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar.

Book on bravehearts of Punjab released

An ebook on military challenges in India and the world was released by Western Army Commander Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar on the first day of the event. He also released a book, ‘Bravehearts of Punjab’, co-authored by Lt Gen JS Cheema (retd) and Prof Kanwalpreet Kaur. The book has details of all 121 soldiers from Punjab who have been awarded Paramvir Chakra, Mahavir Chakra and Ashok Chakra.