China should accept McMahon line as border: Subramanian Swamy

Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy has asked China to accept the McMahon Line as the border with India just as it did in the case of Myanmar to resolve the vexed dispute. China should accept McMahon Line since it had accepted the same line drawn at the same time in 1912 with Myanmar, Swamy said while speaking on "China's relations with its neighbours" at the 2013 World Peace Forum organised by China's Tsinghua University in association with Chinese Foreign Ministry. "Such an acceptance will vastly improve India-China relations," Swamy argued in a lengthy paper presented at the meeting attended by strategic think-tanks from China and a number of other countries.

"On the contrary for more than two-and-a-half thousand years, India and China, two large neighbours and economic superpowers by the then prevailing standards, have had good and peaceful relations based on mutual respect and cultural exchanges, and in fact never had a single military clash till 1962," he said. "Chinese grievance is that the border delineated by British imperialists and colonialists and called the Sir Henry McMahon Line was unfair to China, taking advantage of China's then weak position," he said.

"Of course this is a contestable view," Swamy said. "The key question is what prompts today's China in regard to Japan and India, to make a grievance of a long past historical injustice and unequal treaties enforced by imperialists on a weak China, versus what makes China of today to ignore such injustices in case of others such as in the now settled China-Myanmar border dispute accepting the same McMahon Line" he said.

( Courtesey Indian Express , Based on PTI report PTI : Beijing, Sat Jun 29 2013, 17:56 hrs)

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/china-should-accept-mcmahon-line-as-border-subramanian-swamy/1135550/

Swamy calls for India-China cooperation on terrorism

Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy on a visit to Beijing has made a pitch for India and China to work more closely on counterterrorism, even as he voiced his support for the Chinese government’s efforts in tackling terrorism in Xinjiang amid renewed criticism aimed at its policies after fresh violence this week.

Dr. Swamy, who was here at the invitation of the World Peace Forum, a diplomacy conference co-hosted by Beijing’s Tsinghua University and the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said India and China should come together, especially in Afghanistan, considering their common concerns on terror. His comments came during a week in which the issue has been in the spotlight in China following violence in Xinjiang that left at least 35 people killed. While official media described the incident in Turpan as an act of terrorism, many minority Uighur rights groups have blamed ethnic unrest for the violence. U.S. State Department spokesperson Patrick Ventrell said last week the U.S. was “deeply concerned by the ongoing reports of discrimination” in Xinjiang. Dr. Swamy on Saturday hit out at the U.S., saying its comments were “damaging to the fight against terrorism”, adding that China needed “to review its relations with Pakistan since some of these Xinjiang terrorists are also of Pakistani origin.”

At the Tsinghua forum, he also made a pitch for India and China to move beyond the boundary dispute. “India and China should be strategic partners, not adversaries. The gain in Asian stability and international security would be enormous,” he said. He also called on China to accept the McMahon Line - the effective boundary in the eastern section of the border with India, which China disputes – to end the row, as it had done with Myanmar. “Such an acceptance will vastly improve India China relations,” he said.

( Report by  ANANTH KRISHNAN in The Hindu,  June 29 )

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/in-beijing-swamy-calls-for-indiachina-cooperation-on-terrorism/article4863382.ece