China, India, Yemen
General OpEd Article
By Graeme Mills
When thinking about China’s growing role in world affairs, it is best not to forget India (and Pakistan).
From the New York Times, ‘Rivals and Partners' By STANLEY A. WEISS:
‘BANGKOK — Last fall, a rare opinion poll was conducted across China. It asked a simple question: What do you perceive as the greatest threat facing China? The range of answers was interesting — but even more interesting was the way the survey was reported in India.’
‘Where does the heart of the relationship between the dragon and the elephant lie?’
‘After President Obama’s travels to China and the Indian prime minister’s state visit to Washington, the joke in New Delhi was that “China gets an agreement, Pakistan gets funding, and India gets a nice dinner.”’
‘Which brings us back to that opinion poll: When asked what most threatened them, the majority of Chinese cited non-traditional threats, like climate change, water and food shortages.’
….. and the Middle East, from Asia Times Online, 'Obama's Yemeni odyssey targets China', By M K Bhadrakumar - Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service.
‘The intervention of the United States in Yemen - in whatever form it takes - is not simply a matter of hunting down al-Qaeda. The focus on this strategic country, along with engagement with Somalia and Kenya, is a manifestation of the increasingly cozy three-way US-Israel-India alliance that is the emphatic counter to China's surge.’
‘Is Obama so incredibly forgetful of his own December 1 speech outlining his Afghan strategy that he violated his own canons? Certainly not. Obama is a smart man. The intervention in Yemen will go down as one of the smartest moves that he ever made for perpetuating the US's global hegemony. It is America's answer to China's surge.’
‘It's all about China. Most important, however, for US global strategies will be the massive gain of control of the port of Aden in Yemen. Britain can vouchsafe that Aden is the gateway to Asia. Control of Aden and the Malacca Strait will put the US in an unassailable position in the "great game" of the Indian Ocean.’
‘China is keen to whittle down its dependence on the Malacca Strait for its commerce with Europe and West Asia. The US, on the contrary, is determined that China remains vulnerable to the choke point between Indonesia and Malaysia.’
‘Besides, history has no instances of a declining world power meekly accepting its destiny and walking into the sunset. The US cannot give up on its global dominance without putting up a real fight. And the reality of all such momentous struggles is that they cannot be fought piece-meal. You cannot fight China without occupying Yemen'.
