Tibetan Government in Exile says Chinese action a reflection of its expansionist policy

August 3, 2017;

Economic Times – 02 August 2017

The comments on Dokalam by the highest political authority of Tibetan government are significant and are likely to cause discomfort in Beijing.

NEW DELHI: India-based Tibetan Government In Exile (TGIE), for the first time since the Dokalam standoff, has come out with a public statement on the current border crisis, describing China’s action as a “symbol of its expansionist policy”.

President of the Central Tibetan Administration, Lobsang Sangay, while addressing students of Delhi-based Hansraj College last week referred to the ongoing incursion at Dokalam as a reflection of China’s expansionist foreign policy and fully supported the position of the Indian government in the current standoff.

Sangay, an alumnus of Hansraj College, claimed China was a number one challenge for India, as stated by former defence ministers George Fernandes and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The comments on Dokalam by the highest political authority of TGIE are significant and are likely to cause discomfort in Beijing.

He further decried that China’s nationalistic design is increasingly becoming apparent in the South China Sea, East China Sea, Scarborough Island and, increasing border incursions across the McMahon line and now at Dokalam. “Dokalam situation is consistent with a troubling pattern of Chinese policy of trying to alter the basic facts on the ground.” “You are going to face a complex world. The current global trend is witnessing ultra-nationalism and extremism is on the rise and internationalism and liberalism are on the decline.”

The Tibetan leader also recalled the ‘five-finger’ analogy strategised by Mao Zedong. “In the early 50s, the then Chairman of People’s Republic of China termed Tibet as China’s right-hand palm whereas Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh as its five fingers. Therefore, China’s flexing of its military muscle is a manifestation of its decades old strategy to encircle and weaken India.”

“I always tell India and the world to take heed of the Tibet narrative. We have been telling India for the last 50 years that what happened to us (Tibet) could happen to you. One has to understand Tibet to understand China. What is happening in Dokalam now, happened to Tibet in 1959.”