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India fears China may use Nathu La to extend spy network

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, July 5, IRNA
India-China-Nathu La
As India and China prepare to re-open the Nathu La, the Himalayan pass on the legendary Silk Road trade route between East and West this week, some Indian military experts warn China could use the pass to extend its spy network deep into India.

Businessmen are excited at the prospects of border trade. Pro- Chinese communists and many other Indian political leaders welcome the re-opening of the pass, considering it a vital step in the normalization of relations between Beijing and New Delhi.

But security and strategic affairs experts warn that India's counter intelligence costs will rise dramatically after Nathu La opens because of its proximity to a wide swath of eastern and northeastern India, where Beijing is alleged to have stoked insurgency for decades.

"Chinese spies and agents on subversive missions will find it easier to slip in through Nathu La," said a report published in Toronto Star's webpage on Monday quoting Maloy Krishna Dhar, a retired joint director of India's Federal Intelligence Bureau and author of `Open Secrets: India's Intelligence Unveiled'.

"India is inviting trouble. The Chinese will stoke insurgency, monitor troop deployment and movement along the disputed border and gain access to vital installations like refineries and highly sensitive warfare training centers," he said.

Another security expert, Professor Brahma Chellaney from New Delhi's Centre for Policy Research, said: "At one level, India and China are cozying up to each other and talking of the 21st century as an Asian century. But the grim reality, which New Delhi is inexplicably trying to shrug off, is that both the Communist Party of China and People's Liberation Army are implacably hostile to India beneath the veneer of bonhomie."
Pressure from powerful business and political lobbies put the pass back on the agenda. New Delhi agreed to reopen Nathu La, overruling its own defence experts who continue to express their concerns publicly.

"There is no question of troops along the India-China border being reduced after the re-opening. We will not lower our guard," said Lt-Gen Arvind Sharma, the army commander responsible for the defence of eastern and northeastern India.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama crossed it, fleeing Tibet to obtain exile in India. Then a brief but bloody high-altitude war in 1962 over a border dispute led to the closing of the 4,500-meter high pass that runs between India's present state of Sikkim and Tibet.

Now, with relations thawing between the world's most populous nations, Nathu La is to re-open on Thursday. Commercial vehicles are all set to start trudging across the pass.

Nathu La pass used to be the lifeblood of business between India and China, accounting for 80 percent of border trade.

China and India recorded close to USD 21 billion in bilateral trade in 2005, up 37.5 percent from 2004, according to Chinese statistics. The volume is expected to top USD 22 billion this year.

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