Tawang is a small scenic township nestling relatively at lower heights near to Line of Actual Control (LAC) on the north-east of Arunachal Pradesh. The Buddhist town was in news earlier this month as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Sela Tunnel that connects this rather aloof township with rest of India, Or else, the mountain terrain and the route taken through Sela Pass was too tough and arduous for the troops and the vehicles alike. It snows 130 days in a year and remains cut off for about a month because of inclement weather and heavy snow.
The tunnel has suddenly made access to this town very easy for people and Indian army troops alike. This spoilt the game for People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops who have been conducting raids on the town, of course to be repulsed by the Indian army troops. The last brawl between the Indian and Chinese troops was on the Yangtze Heights overlooking Tawang, a year and three months before Modi inaugurated the tunnel.
This border town has been coveted by China for several reasons. Repeated raids are conducted not only to the gauge the preparedness of Indian army but are also as dry runs before launching full scale, surprise swoopdown to seize Tawang on a later date.
Till the inaugural of tunnel, Chinese side knew very well that it would be extremely difficult for Indian army to mobilise troops at short notice in a very unfriendly mountainous terrain. But now the game has changed, troops and heavy armour, weapons can reach within no time. No need to air-lift the heavy artillery.
But Tawang has not just some military value for China. Tawang is also the birthplace of Dalai Lama. With capture of Tawang, Beijing hopes to gain better control on hearts and minds of Tibetans who revere Dalai Lama and have not really assimilated into Chinese culture. State of disaffection among the Tibetans remains all time high despite 65 years of occupation by China.
“We are not Chinese. We are Tibetans, we are Indians, because our script is not Chinese, our script is Sanskritic. That is the biggest proof against Chinese lies about Tibet,” says Penpa Tsering Sikyong, the Political Leader of Tibetan People, Central Tibetan Administration (Government-in-Exile), headquartered in Himachal Pradesh in India. Despite physical control, Tibetan have remained culturally immiscible in China.
So Beijing looks upon Tawang as some kind an ultimate magic wand which now Modi seems to be snatching away.
Raids on Tawang also expose the deeper anxiety of Beijing for not being able to have Tibetan fall in line with the communist regime, even after over six decades of occupation. To take restive states of Xinjiang, Tibet from China is to reduce China to about half of its size. Beijing is in state of war with its “own” people. And breakaway island states such as Taiwan does not even want to be called part of China. It has a smaller but tough and combative military, navy and air force. Spectre of armed rebellion from these states can not be ruled out in the event of war with an external enemy. A nightmare of military fighting on border as well as its own people actually awaits China.
Beijing knows this very well. So do all the enemies it has made outside the borders. It is finding hard to conceal its desperation of controlling people who have been won militarily but are not ready accept China as their own country.
China has already exposed itself in trying to install a counterfeit reincarnation of Dalai Lama. It is now trying to take ownership of real Dalai Lama’s birthplace to sway Tibetans in its favour. It is not clear whether Beijing is trying to fool itself as thoroughly as it is trying to fool Tibetans and the rest of world. Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan will never be part of China. It is said that a nation is larger than sum total of its parts. But China is smaller than sum total of its parts.
