Chapter 1
* Appeared in the Indian Defence Review, vol. 23(2). Published with permission from Lancer Publishers.
1. Xinhua Communiqué, 1 November 1950, Peking.
2. See Warren W. Smith (1997), Tibetan Nation, New Delhi: Harper Collins, p. 273 quoted from Invasion of Tibet by Chinese Liberation Army, US National Archives (793B.00/8-2150).
3. It was in the fifties that the ‘Ninth Academy’, China’s main nuclear research centre, was built on the Tibetan High Plateau.
4. In this book, Lester Brown, an American environmentalist and the founder of the Worldwatch Institute, describes China’s growth and its effect on the global economy.
5. For full article, ‘China’s Water Shortage Could Shake World Food Security’, by Lester R. Brown and Brian Halweil, see website: http://www.worldwatch.org/bookstore/
6. ‘China Claims Tibetan Canyon is Largest,’ Tibet World News, 4 May 1994.
7. The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Jaswant Singh, speaking on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, on 5 March 2008 said: ‘Sir, it is about the External Affairs Minister again. It is a very intriguing thing. I should not really be raising it until the discussion takes place on his statement. There is just one rather concise but intriguing sentence that the honourable Prime Minister made during his visit to the People’s Republic of China. This is exactly what it says, “PM also took up the issue of trans-border rivers.” I would like to caution you, Sir, that the question of the Brahmaputra and the great bend of the Brahmaputra before it debouches into Assam in the Northeast is a serious situation. Sir, I have obtained for myself maps from the Space Research Organisation and they show that this gorge of the Yarlung Tsangpo and thereafter the Namcha Barwa Mountain has a drop of 2,000 metres. It is a narrow gorge, and 2,000 metres in a distance of about 15 km, which gives an enormous resource intimate to the people of China. I know there are plans to build a dam there. I would like to know what the response of the People’s Republic of China is about that.’
8. Though it is not yet well documented.
9. Known as Nanfang Zhoumou in China.
10. This is near the town of Tsetang, the cradle of the Tibetan civilisation.
11. On 24 January 2008, Reuters published a news story ‘China sees little optimism in anti-desert fight.’ It says: ‘Chinese Deputy Forestry Minister Zhu Lieke admitted that the fight against desertification in the western regions of the PRC, including vast tracts of the Tibetan Plateau, was so far largely unsuccessful. Speaking at a news conference at the end of an international desertification conference co-hosted by the United Nations, Zhu said the Chinese government spent billions of dollars planting trees to hold back the spread of the sands, but “in some areas which have been treated, vegetation has only just started to grow back and is very unstable. If there is no effective solution in certain areas, the deserts will only keep spreading. In desert areas, there is a problem that damage continues at the same time as work goes on to turn back the sands,” he added. Zhu outlined no new measures or funding to fight deserts, but re-affirmed an earlier government goal of bringing the problem “fundamentally under control” by 2010.’
12. See also the following articles: ‘Breach in Tibet Dam Caused Arunachal Floods’, The Times of India, 8 July 2000; ‘India Blames Flash Floods on Chinese Dam’, Agence France Presse, 10 July 2000; ‘Arunachal floods—dam breach in Tibet, China “hushed” it up’, The Indian Express, 10 July 2000.
13. ‘Flood Started in Tibet?’ The Tribune, 4 August 2000.
14. This writer personally witnessed the extensive damage while travelling to Spiti valley a few days after the incident.
15. ‘Made In China’, India Today, 25 June 2001.