he ‘party-state’ of the Communists under Mao and now his copybook successor, Xi Jinping, goes on consolidating individual power, targeting neighbouring countries to make them surrender or present themselves as courtiers before the CPC. Especially if one is small, weak and fragile. The CPC (re)draws maps, distributes money and makes machine guns. As the party celebrates its centenary on July 1, expect the unexpected & unprecedented.
Target: Nepal is high up on the CPC’s agenda for 2021. reuters
The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the State and vice versa. The political manifesto of the CPC — typed, distributed and discussed during annual, biennial or seasonal ‘People’s Congress’ (equivalent to Parliament) sessions — is the updated, upgraded and amended ‘State Constitution’. The all-in-one CPC denotes the absence of an opposition party, rival or competitor. The word ‘opposition’ is synonymous with ‘enemy of the CPC-state’.
Thus, the General Secretary of the CPC is automatically ex officio President of the ‘CPC-state’. One-and-the-same person, necessary and complementary to each other for complete, unitary command, control and communication — an over-centralised, dictatorial model. It includes the geographical territory of the nation-state China, known as the ‘Middle Kingdom’. Unpretentiously named the CPC, in reality, it is the ostentatious ‘Middle Kingdom’. Hence, the President heads the ‘Middle Kingdom’ as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the nation-state.
The deception is fundamental, the foundation of which was laid by the then CPC General Secretary Mao Zedong. The tradition goes on with a debilitating effect. The ‘party-state’ or the ‘state of the party’ of Han Communists under Mao (1893-1976) and now his copybook successor, Xi Jinping, goes on consolidating individual power, “absolute to the power of infinity”, over the institution; targeting neighbouring nations to make them surrender or make themselves courtier countries to present nazrana before the CPC. Especially if one is small, weak and fragile; because, by now, you know that the CPC (re)draws maps, distributes money or morsel, makes machine guns, and manages affairs on land, in air and on water.
As the CPC celebrates its centenary on July 1, 2021, expect the unexpected, unprecedented, unforeseen. Brace for an impending crisis on a date, time and place of the CPC’s choosing. Forewarned is forearmed. Take note of a few key dates: May 4, the anniversary of the Shanghai movement of 1919; March 31, the great escape of the Dalai Lama from the Communist-occupied Tibet to India in 1959; June 26, the start of the Korean war in 1950 to teach the Americans a lesson; June 15, the day Xi was born in 1953. Have you forgotten June 15, 2020, the day 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the Galwan clash?
October, too, is special for the CPC. The invasion of Tibet started in October 1950. Indian policemen were killed on Indian territory on October 21, 1959. The unprovoked invasion of India through Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh took place on October 20, 1962. The foundation day of the People’s Republic of China — October 1, 1949 — is always an important occasion to flex muscles. India, therefore, should be prepared for a moderate-to-severe turbulence, leading to loss of lives, prestige, land, and major economic and commercial shocks.
Lest you forget, 2021 marks 50 years of the visit of the redoubtable Henry Kissinger, the emissary of US President Nixon, to China in 1971. It was a top-secret ‘Mission China’, undertaken to establish contact and cultivate Chairman Mao Zedong. The Nixon-Kissinger duo, on behalf of Wall Street corporations, had eyed the vast Chinese market of (the then) 900 million. The Chinese, too, were glued to the US dollar, technology, investment and finance. Planning long-term, to penetrate deep inside enemy camp. Hence, when the affluent Americans came calling to the third world economies, in Chinese eyes, however, it was obeisance to the Han court — the US kowtowing before the ‘sons of Heaven’ in the ‘forbidden city’ of the CPC.
Today, the same US which was perceived to have had accepted the Chinese as equals in 1971, by presenting its credentials through Kissinger, appears to be “troubling the Middle Kingdom of the Yellow River”. “Cajoling, compelling, blackmailing” to stop the rise of the CPC in the world arena. What better an opportunity to settle the scores than to celebrate the CPC’s centenary, and the golden jubilee of the US visit to the Chinese court? By catching the foe on the wrong foot as the rampaging Chinese virus cripples the US deep inside its own camp!
That’s understandable, as the planned show goes on. But no! Why this sudden tremor in Nepal? Why is Kathmandu, the ideological Communist brethren of the CPC, on the boil? What till yesterday was a matter of pride for the CPC in Kathmandu is in turmoil ahead of the CPC’s centenary.
Nepal is undoubtedly important to the CPC for several reasons. Its geography juts into the heartland provinces of India, thereby giving China an incredible geopolitical advantage through an ideological comrade in the Himalayas. Kathmandu is one of the top 2021 items on the CPC’s plate.
However, despite Nepal being on the powerful Chinese political radar, India continues to be the biggest worry for China, owing to the ethnic commonality and historical fraternity transcending barriers. Plus, the Indian states adjacent to the open border of the two neighbours are intertwined since time immemorial, with or without politics. Astounding civilisational commonality overshadows all godly or man-made faultlines.
So, as the influence of the CPC over the Nepalese counterpart faced serious domestic issues, the Chinese were compelled to mobilise their heavyweight Communist comrades to camp in Kathmandu to do every possible thing to hold sway, and keep India at bay. The CPC has long been hyperactive in South Asia. After the Pakistan-penetrating CPEC project, the Ladakh transgression and the Galwan clash, the Myanmar-Bangladesh investment in defence supplies and futile venture in Bhutan (till now), Nepal just cannot be allowed to go out of the CPC’s clutches — under no circumstances in the CPC’s centenary year.
The perceived ‘Hindu Nepal’, adjacent to the Indian heartland, cannot be allowed to go away or change its political colour. It’s because, except Nepal, the CPC has no ideological base or commonality in any of the states from Indonesia to Iraq. Hence, the CPC under Xi can never be seen to be accepting defeat, weakening or break-up of the Nepal Communist Party, cruising under the perceived guidance and control of Beijing.
Friends and foes, fasten your seat belts in the CPC’s centenary year. Severe turbulence lies ahead.