Chinese threat well handled in last decade, says TN Governor Ravi

CHENNAI: Governor RN Ravi on Tuesday said that the Chinese forces encroached upon 5,500 square kilometres of land in the Aksai Chin region near Ladakh.

Ravi also opined that China has made Pakistan India's enemy and it is now the biggest security threat to the nation.

Delivering his address at the "India-China Relations As Seen From China's Perspective" talk, held at the Raj Bhavan here, Ravi said the greatest threat to Independent India was the People's Republic of China (PRC) and its policy of border expansion.

"PRC continued to invade India's territory. As a result, China encroached upon 5,500 square kilometres of land in the Aksai Chin region near Ladakh. We had to pay a heavy price because the leaders of that time were talking about Ahimsa. Not only that, but China started raising Pakistan against us and it became a problem in many places not only on our border," Ravi said.

However, the Governor has said that the situation has changed in the last 10 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"We have developed an Atal Tunnel and several roads, helicopter landing pad in the border areas and the situation has changed a lot now," he noted.

Decoding PRC's propaganda, the former foreign secretary of the Government of India, Vijay Keshav Gokhale said China believes that it has strength equivalent to the United States and Russia but it is not appropriate to believe that China is the only powerful country in the Asian region.

"China is the world's largest economy with a GDP of US $17 trillion. There are various reasons for this including China owning many patents. Social media is completely in control in PRC and we don't know what's happening inside China. In the Asian region, India's chances of developing in strength equal to China are bright," he said, adding that India is involved in trade with China to the extent of Rs 8.5 lakh crore annually.

Gokhale also opined that India will suffer more if it stops importing from China.

While responding to a query raised by a student, Gokhale said the Hambantota port development project was first given to India by Sri Lanka. As India rejected that, China is developing infrastructure works there and it is no harm to India's security.

IIT-M Director V Kamakoti, and students from various institutions were present at the event.