Indo - Chinese Diplomatic & Economic Relations : News, Updates, Discussions & Analysis.

IndoPacific_SCS_Info (@IndoPac_Info) Tweeted:
Thread: #China planning 1,000km tunnel to divert Brahmaputra water from #Tibet to #Xinjiang China planning 1,000km tunnel to divert Brahmaputra water from Tibet to Xinjiang ( )

While we're busy playing peekaboo with who else but our favorite neighbor Pakistan, the Chinese are gearing up to screw us big time and the Bangladeshis too.
Bro, I am not sure about the financial viability of this project. Even a subway tunnel costs at least 100-500 million USD or more at different parts of world. A thousand km subway tunnel translates to minimum $100 billon . Considering the size of Bramhaputra, even 10 subway tunnels might not be enough to divert enough water to make any significant difference. So is it worth spending 1 trillion $ for such a project ? And what will be the ROI? Lately many of China's "Sky in the Pie" kind of projects have miserably flopped due to lack of financial viability. I feel this will also join that list.
 
Bro, I am not sure about the financial viability of this project. Even a subway tunnel costs at least 100-500 million USD or more at different parts of world. A thousand km subway tunnel translates to minimum $100 billon . Considering the size of Bramhaputra, even 10 subway tunnels might not be enough to divert enough water to make any significant difference. So is it worth spending 1 trillion $ for such a project ? And what will be the ROI? Lately many of China's "Sky in the Pie" kind of projects have miserably flopped due to lack of financial viability. I feel this will also join that list.
Brahma Chellaney has been reporting on this development for the past 6-8 years. If the Chinese have gotten this far ( regarding the Yunnan link) , they'd be tempted to try out this link too . You see, they see the Xinjiang region as a backward area due to which insurgency thrives. Their plan to combat or is two fold. Irritate the region and consequently unleash the Han there.


As far as the costs go, the costs in China is certainly a fourth of what's it in the US. They're waiting for the expertise and experience to mature. Once that happens, they will undertake this program. The only way we can undermine them is again - capture PoK and split Pakistan. Right now, they're dictating terms across Asia. Only India and Japan can counter this narrative. The US is an item boy here. Here today. Gone Tomm. Just my 2 cents.
 
Brahma Chellaney has been reporting on this development for the past 6-8 years. If the Chinese have gotten this far ( regarding the Yunnan link) , they'd be tempted to try out this link too . You see, they see the Xinjiang region as a backward area due to which insurgency thrives. Their plan to combat or is two fold. Irritate the region and consequently unleash the Han there.


As far as the costs go, the costs in China is certainly a fourth of what's it in the US. They're waiting for the expertise and experience to mature. Once that happens, they will undertake this program. The only way we can undermine them is again - capture PoK and split Pakistan. Right now, they're dictating terms across Asia. Only India and Japan can counter this narrative. The US is an item boy here. Here today. Gone Tomm. Just my 2 cents.
Agreed. They would do anything and everything to dominate Asia. But what has been their strength is now turning into their weakness. The wages are growing and pretty soon manufacturing will loose it's cost advantage. They are surviving because there is no other country which can provide skilled labor and ecosystem in such massive scale. There are enough indications of China falling into the middle income trap. They would have lost their manufacturing sector had India not screwed up in so many fronts.
As you said, India's Human Resources and Japan's money can be a formidable combo to defeat China. But for that to happen, Japanese have to give up their superiority complex and Indians have to develop a more proactive attitude.
I would not count US as an ally at all. The day we become as strong as China, it will start backing up somebody else to stop our growth.
 


Ninjamonkey (@Aryanwarlord) Tweeted:
3298km of approved 3346km of border #roads now completed. These will reduce deployment timing & are set to alter #India, #China #military dynamics New Doklam roads set to alter India, China military dynamics ( )


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India restricts universities from tie-ups with Chinese institutions, days before Modi expected to meet Xi
  • India has instructed its universities not to enter into academic cooperation agreements with Chinese institutions unless they obtain prior approval
  • Analysts say the move may be for security considerations or in response to a growing number of Chinese universities trying to gain a foothold in India

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An Indian national flag is flown next to the Chinese national emblem. Photo: AP


India has introduced restrictions on universities seeking tie-ups with Chinese academic institutions in a move to increase scrutiny of collaborative projects involving Beijing.

The news comes just days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet for a bilateral summit n India.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) – a statutory body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) – sent a notice to all Indian universities on October 1, warning them against entering into academic cooperation agreements with Chinese institutions unless they obtain approval from two more ministries.
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Indian Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Photo: Reuters
“In addition to other clearances, prior approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs must be taken by all the academic institutions/universities before signing up to Memorandum of Understandings, educational exchange programmes, agreements and joint declarations of intent etc … with Chinese universities and institutions,” read the letter circulated to the vice chancellors of all the universities in the country.

Under the new guidance, agreements already in force should be put on hold until specifically approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs.

The UGC explicitly stated that the directive came from the MHRD, but did not explain why it had been made. The commission has not previously issued such country-specific academic restrictions.

India has 49 universities funded by the federal government and over 400 universities run by state level governments. This is in addition to the tens of thousands of private academic institutions across the country. The directive covers all such academic establishments.

Official figures on the number of MoUs between Indian and Chinese universities – such as student or faculty exchange programmes – are not currently publicly available.

Phunchok Stobdan, a former Indian ambassador and a senior fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, said he believed the move certainly has security considerations given the nature of India’s relations with China.

“Any institutions run on government funding would certainly require government scrutiny. The government has a set of national policies on China including CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor], BRI [Belt and Road Initiative]. The universities cannot be allowed to dilute or contradict them in the name of academic interest. This is not how the Chinese play the game,” said Stobdan.

Delhi is firmly opposed to CPEC and says it infringes on India’s territorial sovereignty. India has also not joined BRI and has been drafting its own neighbourhood-first policies to dole out funds for infrastructure in neighbouring nations.

However, another analyst suggested the move was more about documenting a growing trend.

“I would not put a sinister angle to the latest announcement except that this could be a response to a large number of Chinese universities trying to gain a foothold [in the Indian market],” said Alka Acharya, former director of the Delhi-based Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) and a sitting professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)’s Centre for East Asian Studies (Chinese Studies).

She noted that JNU and Delhi University each had tie-ups with about 25 Chinese universities, but most of these were inactive due to a lack of funds from the Indian side. Many premier academic institutions in India such as the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) boast on their websites of having joint initiatives with Chinese academia.

Certainly, they are keeping a close watch on Chinese scholars

JNU sitting professor Alka Acharya
“The UGC’s announcement is possibly intended to keep track of which Indian universities enter into a collaborative partnership or exchange programmes with Chinese counterparts. Because over the last few years, there has been a spate of visits by Chinese universities – which have a lot of funds – to expand their requirements in India,” said Acharya.

Chinese institutions were “aggressively campaigning” in India as they were competing with institutes from Australia, New Zealand and Canada to recruit Indian students, she said.

“We’ve been seeing this pattern and there’s been a proliferation of these,” Acharya said.

It’s not just long term student exchanges that are being monitored by the Indian government. Short-term conferences and workshops with participation from Chinese academics are monitored by the ministries of external affairs and defence.

“The government possibly may have come to know that such partnerships are being entered into increasingly. And this [the UGC announcement] could be one way of ensuring that all such interactions are documented. Certainly, they are keeping a close watch on Chinese scholars,” she said, recalling that members of the intelligence agencies occasionally visited her when she was heading the ICS to check on the kind of Chinese academics who visit India.

“In one sense, there is a stringency in the way in which universities are being scrutinised for the kind of work they are doing, and we’ve been witnessing this over the past five and six years in particular,” said Acharya.

In 2006, New Delhi and Beijing signed up to an education exchange programme, an umbrella scheme for all academic collaborations, which was updated in 2015 when Modi visited China.
India restricts universities from tie-ups with Chinese institutions
 
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Nepal pushes to end dependency on India with China rail, tunnel deals

Nepal pushes to end dependency on India with China rail, tunnel deals

By Gopal Sharma

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ReutersOctober 13, 2019

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Nepal's President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and China's President Xi Jinping inspect an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu

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By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping wound up two days of meetings in Nepal on Sunday with separate deals for a rail link to Tibet and a tunnel, an official said, as the Himalayan nation seeks to end an Indian dominance over its trade routes by increasing connectivity with Beijing.

The 70-km (42-mile) rail link will connect Gyiron in Tibet with Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu, making it one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the country.

A Chinese team has already conducted a preliminary study for the project, which will be part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Xi's signature diplomatic and trade push that is attempting to recreate the old Silk Road joining China with Asia and Europe.