Sheepish China Now Trying To Justify The Seized Cargo of Da Cui Yun
Chinese vessel Da Cui Yun has made Indian headlines once again. Hong Kong-registered cargo ship Da Cui Yun with China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, bound for Port Qasim in Karachi, Pakistan, had been detained by Indian security and customs authorities at Deendayal Port, Kandla, Gujarat on February 5.
India had received intelligence that the vessel was transporting cargo that could be used to make nuclear missiles. After the ship docked, Indian port authorities conducted a search and found a so-called industrial dryer, which Indian authorities said can be used to manufacture long-range missiles. However, other equipment related to manufacturing missiles was not discovered.
On February 20, the Chinese vessel was released after being forced to hand over the said industrial dryer.
The smart Chinese company began threatening compensation from India through legal channels. Meanwhile the scientists from India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation who examined the heavy industrial equipment confirmed that the equipment could be used for the manufacture of very long-range ballistic missiles or satellite launch rockets. Indian officials also said India’s national security authorities could notify the UN pursuant to relevant Security Council legal instruments to expose the nuclear proliferation nexus between China and Pakistan.
The Chinese began to spread news that the industrial dryer could not be used for both civilian and military purposes. According to the manufacturer of the equipment, a private company based in Shandong, the equipment is not an “industrial dryer,” but rather a heat-treating furnace system which is mainly used in the production of rubber products such as tires for large construction machinery, anti-collision airbags used at shipping ports, rubber liquid storage tanks, and rubber pipes. It’s not a dual-use item covered by China’s nonproliferation export control regime.
The private company in Shandong also claims that it has no ties to the Chinese military. The company’s Pakistani clients also have nothing to do with the military. Though anyone with common sense knows that in both China and Pakistan everything is connected to the military / Communist Party. China wants to aid Pakistan’s weapons and equipment manufacturing, without being labeled as profilator. China now claims that seizure of its equipment by India is a direct insult to China.
China is a signatory on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Though Over the years, the country has been helping Pakistan to become a nuclear power. As a major responsible power, China has not fulfilled its international nonproliferation obligations and global commitments.
It is because of countries like China that India an established nuclear power, fully capable of retaliating against the first strike of any nuclear power, continually refuses to sign the NPT. Though China has made every effort to fabricate facts to help out Pakistan thus violating the treaty. Meanwhile, all the time China has been opposing India’s entry into NSG.
NSG membership of India will help regulate nuclear trade but India will join the group without signing the NPT. The NSG was originally an international organization established by the US aimed at restricting India. In 2005, seeing that India was a fully established nuclear power the US signed the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement.
China says that it is trying to work establishing a new relationship with India, one that is between two major developing countries, and one that features principles based on “no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.” Therefore India hopes that to realize the goal of “dragon and elephant dancing together”, China will stop propping up Pakistan with nuclear material help. However, should China’s diplomatic and strategic circles continue to repeatedly test India, it would surely harm the future development of the informal summit mechanism between the two.
The Da Cui Yun incident has revealed the arrogance of the Chinese government and its governing Communists. To consolidate its supremacy in Asia and Indian Ocean, China has resorted to every means to prop up Pakistan also trying to create a ring around India but to no avail.
Last year, the Indian Navy expelled a Chinese scientific research vessel blatantly moving in seas near the Andaman Islands, and this year India has seized the Da Cui Yun vessel, thus clearly telling China that Indian Ocean is not seas of the Southern Coast of China.
