A people's diplomat

By Inder Malhotra

China's Ambassador to this country, Mr. Zhou Gang, on completing his tenure, left for Beijing on Wednesday. Only the cognoscenti are aware of his remarkable hard work in the call of duty. But though he wore off several pairs of shoes while pounding the corridors of power, he was never content with this alone. He travelled tirelessly across India to build bridges of understanding with the people at large, delivering at least 100 lectures and speeches. The large, friendly crowds that thronged the succession of his farewell parties bore witness to his popularity for which a part of the credit must go to his wife, a diplomat and scholar in her own right.

Mr. Zhou's three-year stint in New Delhi was more eventful than anyone could have foreseen, thanks to the Shakti series of nuclear tests that took place even before he could present his credentials. In the uproar that followed, China was at times even more vocal than other critics were. Many feared that it would take a long time to overcome the consequent setback to India- China relations that had until then been improving steadily, if slowly.

In the event, the impaired relationship was repaired rather fast after the Foreign Ministers of the two countries. Mr. Jaswant Singh and Mr. Tang Jiaxuan respectively, had met in Beijing and agreed that ``neither country was a threat to the other.'' This, Mr. Zhou said in a freewheeling conversation with me, was the ``key''. And twice, in the course of 45 minutes, he emphasised that the bedrock of the ``broadening and strengthening'' of India-China relations was the adherence by both countries to the five principles of peaceful coexistence, jointly enunciated by them.

Six months after the Foreign Ministers' meeting, the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, paid an official visit to China that his hosts described as a ``landmark''. The two countries celebrated the golden jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic relations between them. In January this year Mr. Li Peng, Chairman of China's National People's Congress, paid a nine-day visit to India during which it was agreed to accelerate the delineation of the Line of Actual Control. The Chinese Prime Minister, Mr. Zhu Rongji, should be here later this year.

Scarcely noticed by the media, as many as three delegations of the Chinese armed forces have been to India in recent months. The Indian Air Chief had just come back from China; his Chinese counterpart will return the visit soon. All this, according to Mr. Zhou, is a ``barometer of the state of the relationship in general.''

Asked whether he was satisfied with what he had been able to achieve his tenure, Mr. Zhou said, ``My answer to your question is affirmative and positive.'' Relations had improved not only at the governmental level but also at the people-to-people level. Trade between the two countries had risen to $3 billion, excluding India's trade with Hong Kong. But he hastened to add that at the rate of just over a dollar per head it was ``manifestly inadequate''. The envoy thought that two steps India and China ought to take without delay is to have an air link between their two capitals and to sign an agreement on investment protection.

It was in this stage that I brought up the two ``sticking points'' - China's continuing concern over the Dalai Lama's activities in this country, and India's dismay over China's supply of nuclear technology and missiles or missile components to Pakistan. Mr. Zhou spoke eloquently and elaborately on both issues but stuck to the standard Chinese positions.

The Dalai Lama, he said, was not acting as a spiritual leader but as a ``political one'' running a ``government-in-exile'' and encouraging not only Tibetan separatism but also other ``anti- China causes''. China expected India ``strictly to enforce'' its policy of not allowing Indian soil to be used for anti-China activities.

As for China's help to Pakistan's nuclear and missile programmes, the Ambassador reiterated that since the signing of the NPT in 1992, China had been honouring all commitments on non- profileration. As for missiles, ``we haven't signed the MTCR but even so we observe its provisions.'' There was military cooperation between China and Pakistan, he said, but it was much less, in both quantity and quality, than that between India and the former Soviet Union in the past and with Russia now.

Clearly, on this score the India-China dialogue remains unsatisfactory. But then this country gets no satisfaction from the United States either. Despite its grandstanding on non- proliferation, Washington has done precious little about the proliferation by China in relation to Pakistan that the U.S. itself asserts has taken place and could still be taking place.

Interestingly, Mr. Zhou had started his diplomatic career as a second secretary in the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi in 1970 and has retired as a successful head of the same mission. However, like one of his predecessors, Mr. Cheng Ruisheng, he would almost certainly be active in Track-II diplomacy. His successor, Mr. Hua Junduo, a former Ambassador to Australia and now holding a senior position in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, is likely to take over in about two months.

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