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Reopening of Nathu La indeed a landmark diplomatic success indicating an end to icy cold relationship between India and China. Besides, launch of Qinghai-Tibet Railway will help pave a new Silk Road and build regional harmony and prosperity.

Indio-Chinese relations going back to Silk Route
Ice melts, Nathu La opens after 44 years

Iftekharul Bashar
Ice has melted at Nathu La Pass after over four decades. The pass, which had been closed since the Indo-China war in 1962, is now open following an agreement between India and China. The pass was opened amidst much joyousness. There was an air of warmth and friendliness as border guards of the two countries, traders and officials mingled with each other, shook hands and took photographs.
   Traders in India especially in Sikkim expect handsome gains in due course following resumption of business through the route, while China looks upon it as a opportunity to make vital inroads into the vast south Asian market as Nathula is the shortest route for it to reach the ever flourishing middle class in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.
   According to the agreement signed by the two countries, 29 items can be exported from India while 15 items can be imported from China. While Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling was accompanied by some of his ministers and officials, the Chinese side was represented by Chairman of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China Champa Phunstok, Vice Chairman Hao Peng, and China's ambassador to India Sun Yuxi. Eighty-nine traders came from the Chinese side and they were taken to Sherathang where a trade emporium has been set up. Across the border, a trade mart has been set up for Indian traders at Renqinggang, inside Tibet. In addition to bolstering trade and social relations, the re-opening of the route would also generate employment and improve the economic condition of the people of Sikkim, said Chamling.
   
   End of Sino-Indian Ice age
   It has really been a very long time - 44 years to be exact. The world we live in looks hardly similar to the world of 1962. But nothing was changed at Nathu La since India and China went to war in that year. This Himalayan pass of Nathu La has remained frozen, barren and closed symbolising perhaps the ice age of Sino-Indian relations. On the 6 July 2006, the barbed wire that separated China and India since the war, was dismantled as the two most populous nations opened this Himalayan border pass to trade. This can be viewed as a signal of an evolving new matrix in the bilateral relations of the two nuclear powers of Asia.
   Officials, businessmen and media people from both China and India gathered braving the shivering cold weather and snowfall at Nathu La Pass along the border between China and India to hold a grand ceremony of resuming border trade after a long time. Highways on the two sides of the pass have been linked while facilities like customs, immigrations and trade markets are taking shape.
   Normal trade will begin at Nathu La Pass from June 1 each year and continue till Sept. 30 before the heavy snow and freezing weather make the pass impassable. While trade through Nathu La will be duty-free, Indian exports are limited for now to an approved 29 commodities, mostly food items. Chinese traders are restricted to bringing in 15 types of goods, including goatskins, wool and herbs.
   The pass has the advantage of being the shortest route to Tibet and China and thus opens up the entire north-east, Bhutan and also Nepal. The pass is 460 km away from Lhasa, 52 km from Gangtok, and 550 km away from Calcutta, a major port along west Indian coast.
   Some 4,000 meters above sea level, Nathu La pass provided a crucial link in the ancient Silk Route through which Indo-Chinese trade was conducted for centuries. For centuries, Chinese and Indian merchants had shipped Chinese silk, tea and Indian jewelry, spices in and out of Nathu La Pass. The famed Silk Road was an ancient trading route that once connected China with India, West Asia and Europe.
   But the pass had become a heavily guarded border after the border dispute between the two countries since 1962. It is heavily guarded even now. It takes about three hours to drive 50 km from Gangtok to Nathu La Pass passing seven army checkpoints. All the way there are cantonments.
   China and India have historically been isolated from each other by the formidable geographical obstacles of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan mountain chain. In pre-modern times Tibet has served as a buffer region between the two. In modern times, China and India share a border along the Himalayas. The two buffer states continue to exist in the form of Nepal and Bhutan, both states lie along the Himalaya range. Additionally, the disputed Kashmir province borders both China and India.
   Both India and China are developing countries, but at the same time they are emerging as super powers; they are the only two states in the world to have populations exceeding a billion people. Their relationship has undergone times of both war and peace. It has been characterized by both competition (to be the premier Asian power; sometimes resulting in military conflict) and by cooperation.
   India and China had relatively little political contact before the 1950s. Despite this, both countries have had extensive cultural contact since the first century BC especially with the transmission of Buddhism from India to China. Trade relations via the Silk Route acted as a means of economic contact to some extent.
   Both sides still have territorial disputes. India accuses China of occupying 32,000 sq.km. (14,670 square miles) of territory in Kashmir, while Beijing lays claim to the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal Pradesh is located near the southwest corner of China (or India's far east), while the territory chaimed by China is located near the northwest corner of India, at the junction of India, Pakistan, and the PRC. However, all sides in the dispute have agreed to respect the Line of Actual Control and this border dispute is not widely seen as a major flash point.
   Although Jawaharlal Nehru based his vision of "resurgent Asia" on friendship between the two largest states of Asia, the two countries had a conflict of interest in Tibet (which later became China's Xizang Autonomous Region, a geographical and political buffer zone where India had inherited special privileges from the British Colonial government.
   At the end of its civil war and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the PRC wanted to reassert control over Tibet and to "liberate" the Tibetan people from Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism) and feudalism, which it did by force of arms in 1950. It can be noted that India was the 16th country to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and did so on April 1, 1950. To avoid antagonising the People's Republic of China, Nehru informed Chinese leaders that India had neither political nor territorial ambitions, nor it did seek special privileges in Tibet, but that traditional trading rights must continue. With Indian support, Tibetan delegates signed an agreement in May 1951 recognising Chinese sovereignty but guaranteeing that the existing political and social system of Tibet would continue. Direct negotiations between India and the PRC commenced in an atmosphere improved by India's mediatory efforts in ending the Korean War (1950-1953). In April 1954, India and the PRC signed an eight-year agreement on Tibet that set forth the basis of their relationship in the form of the Five Principles of Peoples of Peaceful Coexistence (or Panch Shila). Although critics called the Panch Shila naive, Nehru calculated that in the absence of either the wherewithal or a policy for defense of the Himalayan region, India's best guarantee of security was to establish a psychological buffer zone in place of the lost physical buffer of Tibet.
   When an Indian reconnaissance party discovered a completed Chinese road running through the Aksai Chin region of the Ladakh District of Jammu and Kashmir, border clashes and Indian protests became more frequent and serious. In January 1959, PRC premier Zhou Enlai wrote to Nehru, rejecting Nehru's contention that the border was based on treaty and custom and pointing out that no government in China had accepted as legal the McMahon, which in the 1914 Simla Convention defined the eastern section of the border between India and Tibet. The Dalai Lama, spiritual and temporal head of the Tibetan people, sought sanctuary in Dharmsala, Himachal Pradesh, in March 1959, and thousands of Tibetan refugees settled in northwestern India, particularly in Himachal Pradesh. The People's Republic of China accused India of expansionism and imperialism in Tibet and throughout the Himalayan region. China claimed 104,000 sq. km of territory over which India's maps showed clear sovereignty, and demanded "rectification" of the entire border.
   Zhou proposed that China relinquish its claim to most of India's northeast in exchange for India's abandonment of its claim to Aksai Chin. The Indian government, constrained by domestic public opinion, rejected the idea of a settlement based on uncompensated loss of territory as being humiliating and unequal.
   Border disputes resulted in a short border war between China and India on 20 October 1962. China pushed the unprepared and inadequately led Indian forces to within forty-eight kilometres of Assam plains in the northeast and occupied strategic points in Ladakh, China declared a unilateral cease-fire on 21 November and withdrew twenty kilometers behind its contended line of control. Relations between China and India deteriorated during the rest of the 1960s and the early 1970s the PRC backed Pakistan in its 1965 war with India. And after that the Sino-Indian relations was marked by suspision and mistrust. Continued diplomatic efforts and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's visit to China in the late 1980s helped to improve the situation.
   Relations started to get better from the early 1990s. Chinese Primier Li Peng visited India in 1991 and Narasima Rao visited China in 1993. Talks were held in New Delhi in February 1994 aimed at confirming established "confidence-building measures" and discussing clarification of the "line of actual control," reduction of armed forces along the line, and prior information about forthcoming military exercises. China's hope for settlement of the boundary issue was reiterated.
   Sino-Indian relations hit a low point in 1998 following India's nuclear tests in May. Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes declared that "China is India's number one threat", hinting that India developed nuclear weapons in defense against China's nuclear arsenal. In 1998, China was one of the strongest international critics of India's nuclear tests and entry into the nuclear club. Relations between India and China stayed strained until the end of the decade.
   In 2002, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visited India, with a focus on economic issues. The year 2003 ushered in a marked improvement in Sino-Indian relations following Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's landmark June 2003 visit to China. China officially recognized Indian sovereignty over Sikkim as the two nations moved toward resolving their border disputes.
   The year 2004 witnessed a gradual improvement in the international area when the two countries proposed opening up the Nathu La and Jelepla Passes in Sikkim which would be mutually beneficial to both countries. 2004 was a milestone in Sino-Indian bilateral trade, surpassing the $10 billion mark for the first time. The thawing in relations between the two nations are clearly marked on the Nathula Pass, where Indian and Chinese border guards share a close camaraderie in inhospitable conditions.
   In April 2005, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo visited Bangalore to push for increased Sino-Indian cooperation in high-tech industries. The high-level visit was also expected to produce several agreements to deepen political, cultural and economic ties between the two nations.
   A very important dimension of the evolving Sino-Indian relationship is based on the energy requirements of their industrial expansion and their readiness to proactively secure them by investing in the oilfields abroad - in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. On the one hand, these ventures entail competition (which has been evident in oil biddings for various international projects recently). But on the other hand, a degree of cooperation too is visible, as they are increasingly confronting bigger players in the global oil market. This cooperation was sealed in Beijing on January 12 during the visit of Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who signed
   an agreement which envisages ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) placing joint bids for promising projects elsewhere. This may have important consequences for their international relations.
   The reopening of Nathu La Pass was first raised when the then Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee visited China in 2003. The proposal was strongly opposed by Indian military circles. The new cabinet of India, taking office in 2004, had not nodded on the reopening due to security concerns till mid last year.
   The re-opening of the Nathu La is indeed a turning point in the history of Sino-Indian relations. "This is the beginning of a new era of hope and prosperity and the improving of bilateral ties between both nations,"Qiangba Puncog, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said in his remarks at the reopening ceremony on 6th July.
   One of the main reasons behind the efforts of improving bilateral relation is economic interest of both the countries. Both India and China posted their seasoned diplomats in each others capital. Besides, it is such a time when cooperation seems to be a more profitable policy choice than conflict. In terms of purchasing power, China is the second biggest economy of the world while India is in the fourth position. Both countries have a large consumer market with a booming middle class. China and India recorded US$18.73 billion of trade in 2005, up 37.5 per cent year-on-year, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. The figure is expected to reach US$20 billion this year. Today, border exchanges account for a paltry $100 million of the total trade, with the rest going by sea or air. Currently 90 per cent of the goods are shipped by sea.
   The re-opening of border trade will help ease the economic isolation of the region. Nathu La border trade markets will not only benefit border inhabitants in both countries and promote local openness and development, but also further motivate and open up a new channel for the blooming China-India trade relations. Analysts say that the formal re-opening of this trade route will create a win-win situation for both countries. Although the two countries have agreed to resolve their border rows politically, talks have made slow progress and much of their 2,200-mile frontier still remains disputed.
   The Indian authorities view Nathu La as "not just a trade route, but a cultural highway." With Nathu La Pass opened, it is only 1,200 kilometers by land from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to Kolkata, the biggest city in eastern India. Meanwhile, in New Delhi some conservatives are still concerned about defense security related to Nathu La Pass and it can easily be understood that India will carefully monitor the security arrangements.
   Nathu La Pass reopening also makes it possible to build a trade corridor linking northwest China, even central Asia, to the Indian Ocean as the -Tibet railway has started operation on July 1."The smooth corridor will benefit both China and India and help make a close cooperative mechanism between the two countries," said Srikanth Kondapalli, expert with India's Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses.
   China views the reopening of the pass as more than just symbolic. Sun Yuxi, Chinese ambassador to New Delhi says, "We hope it would help to improve relations between the countries. Today the border is open for trade, and we hope the border will soon open for tourists and a bus service from Gangtok (state capital of Sikkim) to Lhasa. We are excited and feel really good."
   This initiative will help shape a major land trade route linking China and South Asia. Observers feel the reopening of Nathu La Pass and launch of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will help pave a new Silk Road and build regional harmony and prosperity. Reopening of Nathu La is indeed a landmark diplomatic success that shows the icy cold relationship between India and China is nearing an end.

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Mandarin Mix-up

CAMPUS CAPERS Rayyan Kamal
Every student in my summer program has been paired with a Chinese student from Beijing Language and Culture University. Our "Chinese friends" ("Zhongguo pengyou" in Mandarin) are supposed to complement our classroom education by giving us a taste of Chinese youth culture. So far I've met my Chinese friend twice. We've gone out for dinner. However, that's just the minimum. Some of my peers have gone shopping with their Chinese friends - some have even gone to bars with their Oriental buddies.
   The first meeting with my pengyou, Li, can only be described as a disaster. 90% of the time I could not understand him, and when I was able to comprehend his very slow and clear style of speaking, I could barely respond. Fortunately, my Mandarin speaking faculties did allow me to ask him how many siblings he had ("I don't know if you were aware, but in China couples are only allowed to have one child") and whether he approved of his president or whether he supported the opposition. ("It's actually Chairman, not president. And in case you weren't aware of the fact, China is communist. There is no opposition.") I probably made Bush seem worldly.
   Our second dinner was a bit more successful. He wanted to give American food a try, so we went to Kendeji (KFC). I noticed that all the signs and menus were in Mandarin only. I tried to order by pointing at the pictures, but that proved to be unsuccessful. In the end Li had to come to my rescue. The problem was that I had asked for a bottle of cold water, totally forgetting that all Chinese restaurants (and, apparently, fast food places) only serve hot water.
   Li and I had an interesting talk. He asked me if I had felt the earthquake that had occurred earlier in the day. I had, except at the time I had known it was an earthquake. We were in class and we felt the floor move. The movement was very, very slight. When we asked our teacher she said, "No, no, no. It's definitely not an earthquake. There must be construction going on nearby. Beijing is very safe." I later found out that the earthquake had registered 5.1 on the Richter scale.
   I asked Li how his classes were going. A German language major, he told me he was quite stressed out because he had exams next week. As for me, I was quite enjoying my classes, while not enjoying my classmates. They all told my teacher that I like to drink beer every morning before going to class. She had no problem with the habit, since most Chinese people drink. She did, however, object to the timing. "Why drink in the morning? It's better to drink at night before going to sleep." My very fervent efforts to convince her that my classmates were lying went in vain.
   Li told me not to worry. "You always seem stressed out," he told me. He suggested that I take tai chi classes to help me relax. And so that is what I am doing now. But I will elaborate another time. Now I must go for dinner and hope I am not accidentally served pork for the 100th time.
   Rayyan Kamal presently in Beijing

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Football Frenzy

ROAMING RACONTEUR Saad Quasem
A storm of football has recently struck the horizons of planet earth. The holy month of FIFA World Cup has just ended. All luck has showered on Italy and all the paths of success now lead to Rome. Italy just added a cup more to its historical heritage. Football is the only game cherished by the global population. During the last month hundreds of millions of people silently allied to achieve one goal: to fully enjoy football. However, countries like the US of A displayed widespread apathy to this trend.
   American football is a game very different from "football" as rest of the world knows it. Hence, the word "football" adds a different connotation. Of course, the whole country plays "American football;" that too against each other. The concept of other countries is very ambiguous to the majority of the American public and playing with such matters would be "a cold day in hell."
   It is not out of the blue, that when I asked my neighbor who he was supporting in the World Cup, his reply was prompt with "what world cup?" I explained football to him and he said, "Oh, we call it soccer, naa, who cares." The advent of the Internet enables people all around to remain at my fingertips. Throughout the football season online chats have included countless number of FIFA topics, sign in names have sequentially changed according to the day of the match and so on. These people were scattered on all corners of the world. There are certain instances confined to America, only.
   The vast Italian community in America shut their businesses to watch their nation fighting in the game. Around the world, the fever boosted the spirits. Rome, Paris and London were illuminated with large screens all enabling spectators to enjoy the game from any point. Approximately 2 billion watched this game all over the planet.
   Italy is now the only team to win the World Cup four times, Brazil being the only better, holding the cup five times. After decades of waiting Italy has brought legacy back home. This caused nationalistic sentiments to go higher in this football-crazy country. With the last tiebreaker goal that predicted the victory of Italy, a collective cry of joy and tears of happiness erupted in piazzas, bars and living rooms in this soccer-crazed country as Italians watched their beloved team bring home the world cup. Overwhelmed fans in major cities and small hamlets poured into the streets with red, white and green flags, air horns and colored smoke bombs. The country united in harmony over this victory.
   Columbian dancer and singer Shakira danced just prior to the game, which was a highlight of the event. People danced in the streets of Bangladesh, in the deserts of Africa, in the forests of South America in response to the beloved Italy's joy. Many were also thrilled at France's loss. At least the world was in coalition during the game, to enjoy every bit of it.
   Saad Quasem lives in Philadelphia, USA.

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