It’s not about the monks

NEW DELHI, India — This week, when the Dalai Lama addresses the world’s largest Buddhist monastery outside of Tibet, in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, he will deliver a message of peace and serenity. But in the leadup to the Buddhist leader’s visit to the northeast Indian state, New Delhi has had to endure a nail-biting onslaught of provocations from Beijing.

Towards the end of the summer, the Indian media reported that China’s military had launched almost daily cross-border incursions, though China disputed their accuracy. Citing Indian military sources, Indian media claimed a Chinese military unit crossed into Kashmir and painted “China” on some rocks to provoke Indian troops, and that China has begun building military structures across the border from Kashmir for the first time since the 1962 war between India and China.

Meanwhile, Beijing has taunted New Delhi by issuing visas to residents of Kashmir on a separate sheet of paper rather than in their Indian passports, flaunting the disputed sovereignty over the state. And the People’s Republic has ramped up its attacks on the Dalai Lama, who has lived in northern India since his exile from Tibet in 1959.

Frightening as the rhetoric and incursions may seem, Indian security experts say China is not preparing for a military attack, nor is this really the outpouring of anger over the nationhood aspirations of a few monks.

“It’s true that in the overall sense, China is militarily far superior to us,” said former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal. “But in Tibet they’re overextended and Arunachal Pradesh is a long, long way from their bases.”

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