Should China be given full membership at SAARC?
Should China be given full membership at SAARC?
Introduction:
China is all keen and resolute about upgrading its observer status at the SAARC, seeking supports from member nations as Pakistan expectedly offers to second the decision. India rejected the demand saying that the member nations of SAARC first need to deepen their cooperation amongst themselves and later think of extending the membership to observer nations. Obviously there are pros and cons of China getting full membership and to add to it, there is the special bond China is known to share with Pakistan, training its armies and providing hidden support to them against India.
No, China should not be given full membership:
1. Supporting Pakistan: The India Pakistan conflict has always been out of control of any association or peace meet. Even when the two nation pledges peace and friendship at these meets, nothing seems to be bridging the gap when it comes to fight. Adding China to the association would only worsen the situation as we know China is an “all weather friend” of Pakistan.
2. Shift of power: As Pakistan and other member nations believe that though SAARC may not be India-centric or India-driven but is, India-dominated and they are keen on changing this status. They simply invite this decision of giving full membership to China as a countervailing force against India. They obviously have reasons to believe that this change of power would do them good but the opposite might also happen as China doesn’t have to prove its worth to anyone. Its domination can bring the opposite to even the nations supporting the decision.
3. Authoritarian: China is not a democracy, it is an authoritarian. Adding China to SAARC might mean domination of China over the weaker economies which might just become raw material suppliers to these powers.
4. Creating mess: SAARC has been underperforming since a long time and adding a powerful nation to the association would create more unjust decisions and overall a mess at decision making. You cannot expect a very powerful nation with great economy to lay down its term in accordance with weaker economies which will suffer eventually.
5. Regional imbalance: SAARC is East Asian and not a South Asian nation and therefore there is no reason why this observer nation should be given a full membership and not the other observer nations like United States and Japan. These nations too might express their interest in getting the full membership if China would be bestowed with that.
Yes, China should be given full membership:
1. Help might flow in: China’s powerful economic growth and superior powers can be of help towards the development of the SAARC nations which are not able to implement the plans due to shortage of economic support. Trade and commerce with China might also flow in, benefitting the weaker nations in evolving to be a better economy. Perhaps this is the reasons why apart from Pakistan the other nations excluding India also supported the decision to welcome China in SAARC.
2. Democracy does not matter: Bangladesh's dictator, President Gen Zia-ur-Rehman was the one who founded SAARC. When SAARC was initiated there were other nations as well that was not democratic in nature: two dictatorships Bangladesh and Pakistan, two monarchies Bhutan and Nepal, authoritarian Maldives as well. This clears the discussion of democracy.
3. Good for India as well: The other nations are strongly supporting the decision to include China which would lead to isolation of India and the fact that China will continue to provide aid to the neighbors even if it does not get membership is also unquestionable for the all weather friendship they hold. It would be safer for India to grant membership to China along with negotiating for the other nations like Japan to get the full membership as well.
Conclusion:
This decision seems to be long avoided or terminated. India must decide now. Either it should confidently declare that it is not going to grant the membership of a non-South-Asian nation or it should negotiate its own conditions and grant the membership. The decision has to be wisely taken after careful considerations of all the sides but it has become unavoidable for sure. In recent times, there has been news of rising conflicts between China and India which is not at all good news for India. This might just be the chance for India to strengthen the bonds with China and avoid conflicts in times to come.
Discussion
- RE: Should China be given full membership at SAARC? -Ravi Pratap Jaiswal (12/04/14)
- The 18th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) began on 26th Nov, 2014 in Kathmandu, Nepal .China has been a SAARC observer since 2005 and Pakistan continuously pressing India for granting full SAARC membership to China from observer. But why Pakistan is showing so much interest in China and not in other observers like United States, South Korea, Japan and Iran? They are “all-weather friend” and by backing china, Pakistan wants to acquire dominant position in Asia. Since the establishment of SAARC in 1985, it has always performed below par as a multilateral institution and giving a membership to a country with which India has a major border dispute will make organization messy. Pakistan opposed most proposals for regional economic integration in SAARC Summit and hence blocked project that will boost up economies of the SAARC countries. Providing gateways to China strengthen the bond between them and as a full member, assumption is that China will get a veto in SAARC affairs and will take decision unanimously and in turn will block projects that may offer strategic and economic advantage to India.
In order to boost the economic conditions, SAARC members should deepen cooperation among them and should resolve internal disputes and then aim to achieve internal cohesion and consolidation rather to provide full membership to observer countries like China etc. for economic growth.
- RE: Should China be given full membership at SAARC? -Deepa Kaushik (12/03/14)
- Giving full membership at SAARC is definitely a decision so crucial and critical which requires deep insight of the matter and their pros and cons. The Indo-China relations have never been all that smooth especially the border conflict which has been lingering now for years. In addition to this, the Pak-China relations and their friendly exchange of help and aid has been another major area of concern for the Indians. With these two most critical issues for the country, India supporting China’s full membership at SAARC would be an open grant of power and authority to the rivals and strengthening them against us.
On the contrary, we being a part of the world need to compromise and adjust to the environment to have a good neighbourly relations and healthy peaceful living of the citizens. We can very well understand the other nations in the favour of the decision to grant full membership to China. In such a situation, India opposing the notion alone is nothing but isolating ourselves and breaking the friendly bond.
Also, we can understand the seriousness of the matter by refusing the full membership status to China; our relations being already sour with the nation could lead to more havoc which we would be bound to face alone as we are the loners in our decision for China against SAARC membership.
Though we could be at a influencing position in SAARC, but we need to be neutral while making decisions from the worldly point of view. It would be unjust to concentrate on the problems for India alone. We cannot deny the progress of China that could be possible by having the full membership and this in turn could help and aid the other countries as well. It is unfair in denying the membership just for the reason they have the autocratic rule. Till the citizens of the country accept their governance without any revolt, no other nations can raise any question on the nature of governance they have, and the same has nothing to do with the full membership at SAARC. Hence, before making any final decision, we need to analyse all the pros and cons with respect to China’s capabilities which could contribute towards the progress and functioning of SAARC.
- RE: Should China be given full membership at SAARC? -pinky (12/02/14)
- in my point of view..china is not developed country but now a days people are using so many china products because its cost is low.because of that china is a developing country.we can see few years later it will be a developed country.
