The train in Tibet and the Clouds over Himalayas
NEW China has no money problem. When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited debt-laden Greece last week he promised to double trade in five years and buy Greek bonds when Athens returns to international markets. It is a way to invest the Middle Kingdom's phenomenal export trade surplus.
Another way to invest is to build infrastructure within the boundaries of China. This serves several purposes: it helps stabilize 'restive' regions of the Empire, gets some revenue out of the tourism development and perhaps more importantly 'defends' the borders of the People's Republic of China.
...nobody is fooled by Beijing's propaganda: the train will be used to bring more Han migrants and change the mountainous region's demography.
The construction work on a strategic rail line which will be connecting Lhasa to Shigatse, the Tibetan Autonomous Region's (TAR) second largest city is an important step towards the borders of Nepal, and also India and Bhutan.
Zhang Ping, the head of the powerful National Reform and Development Commission (corresponding to our Planning Commission) stated that the 253-km extension will cost about 13.3 billion yuan ($2 billion) and take four years to complete.
Officially, the railway is being brought to modernize and develop the region. But nobody is fooled by Beijing's propaganda: the train will be used to bring more Han migrants and change the mountainous region's demography. In The China Daily, Railways Minister Liu Zhijun admitted the 'vital role (of the railway) in boosting tourism …and promoting the rational use of resources along the line'. Despite the declarations of Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party boss in Tibet: "The railway will detour around nature reserves and drinking water sources… measures will be taken during construction to better protect the fragile plateau environment." It sounds like looting the rich mineral resources of the Tibetan plateau.
The extension of the railway towards the Nepal border will make it easier for the People's Liberation Army to rapidly deploy missiles targeting the large Indian metropolis, without being spotted.
But that is not all. More importantly for India, the rail can be used to bring missiles closer to the Indian border. Recently in its annual report, the Pentagon stated: "To improve regional deterrence, the PLA has replaced older liquid-fuelled, nuclear-capable CSS-3 intermediate-range ballistic missiles with more advanced and survivable solid-fuelled CSS-5 [DF21] MRBMs (Medium Range Ballistic Missile) and may be developing contingency plans to move airborne troops into the region."
The proximity to the highway makes them mobile. The same blog explains: "It requires solid ground when launching to prevent damage from debris kicked up by the rocket engine. As a result, launchers would have to stay on roads or use the pre-made launch pads that stand out clearly in high-resolution satellite images."
Moreover, a launcher needs support vehicles for targeting, repair, and communication; though it is not an easy proposition to move these missiles around, the train may, in the future be of great help.
The extension of the railway towards the Nepal border will make it easier for the People's Liberation Army to rapidly deploy missiles targeting the large Indian metropolis, without being spotted.
The Pentagon report has mentioned only the road network: "China is currently investing in road development along the Sino-Indian border primarily to facilitate economic development in western China; improved roads would also support PLA border defence operations."
Another worrying piece of news is the fact that Nepal is quickly becoming a Chinese colony.
When the railway line to Lhasa was inaugurated in July 2006, many in India expressed some concern. Since then, rumours have been circulating that a parallel line was being constructed to allow the movement of troops and military equipment. Added to the extensive network of good roads and airports in Nyingchi (north of Arunachal Pradesh), Ngari (north of Uttarkhand/Himachal) as well as the improvement of the present airport facilities in Lhasa and Chamdo in eastern Tibet, this should be a reason to worry for India.
Wang Mengshu, a railway tunnel expert and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering told The China Daily that half of the line to Shigatse (some 115 km) will be laid in tunnels or on bridges. Officially it is to protect the environment, but it is undoubtedly easier to hide train loads in tunnels.
In a few years' time, the next extension of the railway will reach Nepal and Nyingchi with all the consequences one can imagine for the defence of the Arunachal Pradesh border.
All this does not augur well for India which has a tendency to think and act at elephant's pace, while Beijing is moving its cards more and more swiftly.
Today Sino-Nepal relations flourish as never before. The website China Tibet Information Center, a subsidiary of the official Xinhua news agency, announced on 13 July that the land port between Nepal and Tibet located at Gyirong (Shigatse Prefecture) will be fully operational in 2011. The website affirmed: "Since the end of 2009, TAR has made great efforts to build the Gyirong Port and speed up its construction in 2010."
The Economic Times affirmed: "China is expanding its engagement with Nepal by building what is being billed as the biggest land port connecting it with the South Asian region as a whole", adding: "The idea is to apparently build it as a border post larger than Nathu-la (in Sikkim)."
The message is clear, even if there is nobody to read it in Delhi. Kathmandu is interested to import petroleum products from China once the secluded ex-Kingdom is connected by rail to TAR.
Another worrying piece of news is the fact that Nepal is quickly becoming a Chinese colony. A Nepali newspaper reported last week: "Nepal government has lately vowed to check 'anti-China activities' to strengthen friendly ties with China, a major donor for the impoverished country."
When the Tibetan diaspora recently voted for their Kalon Tripa (prime minister-in-exile), it was an 'anti-China activity'. While the elections were held smoothly everywhere else in the world, Kathmandu decided to confiscate the ballot boxes. The Ministry of Home Affairs of Nepal issued a statement that the internal vote of the Tibetans was "against Nepal's foreign policy which regards Tibet as an integral part of China".
The Kathmandu police chief explained that the action was taken to prevent an 'illegal vote'. He told AFP: "The Tibetans are living in exile in Nepal. It is illegal for them to carry out elections here."
Many observers see a connection between the Nepal government's reaction and the visit a few weeks earlier of a Chinese high-level delegation led by He Yong, Secretary of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He is reported to have shown his satisfaction over "Nepal's 'one China' policy and the alertness adopted by the country over the Tibet issue".
Earlier, the Chinese and Nepal governments had agreed to set up a joint mechanism to share intelligence on 'anti-China activities' in Nepal.
All this does not augur well for India which has a tendency to think and act at elephant's pace, while Beijing is moving its cards more and more swiftly.
http://www.indiandefencereview.com/IDR-Updates/The-train-in-Tibet-and-the-Clouds-over-Himalayas-.htmlRailways in Tibet
"MOUNT EVEREST is singing for joy and the Brahmaputra River swirling with happiness". Or so says an official Chinese newspaper (using the Tibetan names, Qomolangma and the Yarlung Tsangpo). After much delay, China has started to extend its controversial railway line in Tibet that will draw more tourists to the mountain and boost trade with South Asia. How happy the outcome will be is not so clear.
Planning for the 253km (157-mile) line from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to the region's second city, Shigatse, began in 2002, four years before Lhasa itself was connected to China's railway network. The authorities appear not have been deterred by the problems that the railway brought to Lhasa. A tourism boom and a flood of immigrants from China's interior contributed to an explosion of unrest among embittered Tibetans in March 2008. The launch ceremony in Lhasa of the $2 billion extension on September 26th was celebrated by dancing children in elaborate Tibetan costumes. Chinese television said the line would be of "great significance for the strengthening of ethnic unity".
Like the route to Lhasa, which crossed the highest terrain of any railway in the world, the single-track extension will involve considerable technical difficulties. Nearly half of it will go through tunnels or over bridges (96 of them). It will cross areas prone to earthquakes, landslides and sand storms. Whereas the line to Lhasa had to traverse unstable permafrost, the new one will be challenged by geothermal fields with hot springs. All this at an oxygen-starved altitude of 3,550-4,000 metres.
The railway will make it easier to reach Mount Everest, which can expect to see a lot more tourists eager to be photographed in front of the world's highest peak (Shigatse is also due to open an airport soon, Tibet's fifth for civilian use). In 2007 the Chinese side of the mountain recorded 27,476 visits by Chinese tourists, almost twice as many as in 2006, after the new rail service to Lhasa had opened. Environmentalists are worried.
So are the Indians. The government in Delhi has been nervously watching China's build-up of infrastructure in Tibet. The extension to Shigatse, besides facilitating military movements near China's border with India, is likely to boost trade with Nepal, where the two giants are vying for influence in a power struggle that is still going on. China has long-term plans for more extensions of the line, to Nyalam on the border with Nepal and to Dromo near Bhutan and the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal wants the railway extended to Kathmandu, which India fears would give China more clout in a country India sees as part of its sphere of influence. Another proposed line, from Lhasa east to Nyingchi, would bring the network close to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, most of which China claims.
Tibetans might have mixed feelings too. The rail link to Lhasa brought disproportionate benefits to ethnic Han Chinese whose language and culture enabled them to take quicker advantage of the Han tourist influx. Tibet Business News said the majority of traders in Shigatse were migrants from beyond Tibet. It quoted a woman from neighbouring Sichuan Province saying that the railway would cut her costs of doing business in Shigatse by half. Expect more like her to come.
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