CHINA AND INDIA

INDIA'S "LOOK EAST POLICY" MEANS "LOOK TO ENCIRCLE CHINA"?

Li Hongmei

People’s Daily, October 27, 2010

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's three-nation visit to Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam has been a media hype at home, being even describe as a missionary trip to seek new strategic allies to deal with China, and to showcase India's resolve to persist on its "Look East Policy" on its way to pursue the geopolitical and economic goals and achieve a "Big Power" status in the region, if not the leading power.

Some of the Indian media even add more color to Singh's Japan visit, besides the nuke deal and trade agreements, desperately crying it is high time for India that it strengthened the embankment of Tokyo to prevent "China's expansion."

As for Japan, whose relations with China have frosted over amid the diplomatic détente over the East China Sea, India, with a large consumer base, exudes a magnetic appeal to the presently sluggish economic power. Moreover, India's rare earth, although much less than China's deposits, is enough at the moment to present a peculiar fascination to Japan, who has all these days complaining about Chin's restriction on the rare earth exports and is anxious to get rid of the passive status quo caused by the undue reliance on China's supplies.

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