The disputed border between China and India may not have been properly demarcated, at least in the eastern border between the two countries (as previously discussed here). From India’s the Telegraph comes a blow-by-blow of the handover. (Cached link here.
Chinese, Indian guards conspire to gain inches on each other as VIPs make speeches in the rain
Sujan Dutta
An Indian policeman and a Chinese soldier standing shoulder to shoulder at 14,400ft today crafted the tall and short of a story of how borders go soft despite provoking tempers in South Asia. Constable Harish Solanki of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and a corporal identified as Chang Yeoh played out a quiet drama for several hours in the rain and blustery cold winds on the pass that continued through the official ceremonies to mark its opening for trade. They stood in the middle of the pass as silent sentinels of each other’s countries with the Line of Actual Control demarcating India and China passing between the one’s left shoulder and the other’s right.
Solanki was deputed to be the honour guard on the line from the Indian side. The ITBP has been posted here to secure the 7-km corridor to the Sherathang market, the point inside India till where Chinese traders will be permitted to go.
In posting Solanki at the pass, the Indian side was also complying with a UN convention by which countries agree not to post armies on international boundaries. Viewed from New Delhi, this is a near-final resolution of the issue of Sikkim, whose accession to India in 1975 was objected to by the Chinese. The ITBP is a paramilitary force. The Chinese, however, kept a PLA soldier on the line.
Solanki, a strapping beanpole of a Haryanvi from Palam near Delhi is an imposing 6ft 3in. When Solanki took his post, he found that a Chinese soldier from the PLA, who would have otherwise been just at chest-height for him, was standing on a stool. Without a murmur, the Indian side decided to get Solanki also a stool. Neither was in the script.
“What they (the Chinese) have done is against the drill,”Â? said Raj Kishore, commandant of Solanki’s battalion. “So instead of asking them to remove their stool to avoid last-minute hitches, we have got one ourselves.”Â?
This restored Solanki’s (and India’s) stature. But it dismayed the Chinese. They too decided to take genteel action. Their border guardsman was substituted by a taller one — this was Chang Yeoh. The high-heeled jackboots pushed him closer to six feet.Solanki’s ITBP colleagues decided that the Indian was still taller and if the Chinese believed that they had scaled the right height in Nathu-la, they were welcome to harbour that optical illusion. Solanki and Yeoh put shoulder to shoulder and locked eyes for a millisecond. Then both became statuesque.
The Chinese PLA now did a reassessment. There was little time left, Sikkim’s chief minister Pawan Chamling had arrived, as had the Chinese ambassador to India, Sun Yuxi, and the governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Giangba Puncog.
The VIPs met warmly, shaking hands and pleasantries in the open despite the wind and the rain, prompting an Indian army officer to remark in Hindi: “When frozen relationships melt, conditions will be wet”Â?.
During this exchange, Yeoh’s stool was replaced by a small table. The Chinese soldier displayed no emotion as he took his perch. Unlike his predecessor he was not looking sideways intermittently and jostling to look taller. This was clearly a happier state of affairs. India’s Solanki, too, accepted the enforced equality and his turban still rated him several inches higher than Yeoh’s peaked cap.
Chamling was concluding his speech. He hoped that the opening of Nathu-la was a new beginning and that border trade would pave the way for transit and tourism. Sun Yuxi said: “Border trade is a way of resolving the outstanding issues between India and China.”Â?
Now another PLA soldier goes up to Yeoh, wipes his jackboots off water and adjusts his epaulettes. The rain gets stronger. Constable Solanki has a problem. His imposing turban is getting wet, he confides to his colleagues. Another stool is conjured up and placed behind Solanki. A fellow constable takes his position behind him and holds up an umbrella for Solanki’s turban. Water trickles off the umbrella and on to Yeoh’s shoulder, wetting his uniform.
By this time the ceremony is over and the bands have struck the Indian national song and a Chinese number. A total of 89 traders from Yatung region of Tibet are to cross into India and 100 Indian traders from Sikkim will go over to Rinchengang in China.In the Chinese delegation there is Sonam Tashi from a village in Yatung who speaks a smattering of English and is attired colourfully in a traditional Tibeta Chhuba (robe). What does he thinking of the reopening of Nathu-la on Dalai Lama’s birthday? “Communist, yes, communist,”Â? says Tashi, walking off.
Behind the Chinese delegation, the atmosphere on the LAC where Solanki and Yeoh stood is now more relaxed. They have been replaced and the new border guardsmen are not on perches and are not standing frozen in attention any more.
Solanki asks for hot tea. He smiles and says “chhotu”Â? was only up to his ears. It was difficult to gain PLA soldier Yeoh’s confidence. When it was sought, one of his comrades curtly said: “Discipline, please, discipline.”Â? But then he also offers a cigarette, perhaps knowing plains Indians do not smoke in the rarefied air of these mountains. That is the long and short of the Nathu-la story. The skirmishing has stopped, the jostling has not but the border went soft today.
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The Acorn » Sunday Levity: Vertical parity, The quest for added these pithy words on Jul 23 06 at 4:34 am[...] Tall Indian policemen look taller still in their ceremonial uniforms. So what’s the People’s Liberation Army to do to maintain parity? Use a stool, of course (an perhaps ensure full-length photographs are prohibited). (Via Coming Anarchy quoting a Calcutta Telegraph report of the opening of the border crossing at Nathu La) Home | Permalink | [...]
Sonagi added these pithy words on 20 Jul 06 at 9:06 pmI wonder if there is a height requirement for guards on either side, like there is at the Korean DMZ.
davesgonechina added these pithy words on 21 Jul 06 at 12:44 pmHey Curzon, both of us have been in Vietnam recently. I can’t help but think this is the sort of thing where Vietnamese pride really distinguishes itself – if it were a Vietnamese guy next to 6’3” guy, they wouldn’t deploy a stool or a taller guy. I got the impression in Vietnam the attitude was “Yeah, so I’m short. I’ll still kick your ass.” Did you get the same sense of healthy self-esteem in Vietnam vs. this kind of Chinese sensitivity?
sun bin added these pithy words on 21 Jul 06 at 4:01 pm:) so you guys think the indian sent that guy on purpose.
at 14400 feet, it is probably safer to choose the fittest soldiers than the tallest. i can bet that yao ming will collapse in a few hours there.
Tagore added these pithy words on 21 Jul 06 at 4:27 pmIt would have been funnier if the Indian troops sang a rousing rendition of Monty Python’s “I Like Chinese” ...
davesgonechina added these pithy words on 21 Jul 06 at 4:45 pmSun Bin, I think you misunderstand. I wasn’t commenting as to whether or not the Indians sent So-Tall Solanki on purpose. Perhaps they did. I was referring to the fact that I have a hard time imagining the Vietnamese, or quite a few other Asian armies, looking at that tall Indian and saying “HOLY CRAP! We can’t let their guy be taller than our guy!” and fetching a f**kin’ stool, then replacing the soldier who was previously appointed to stand there with a last minute replacement simply because of a height difference. I do not know whether or not the Indian military decided to be petty about it in advance and chose the tallest constable (the constable vs. soldier issue is a whole other matter that concerns me), but the article makes absolutely clear that the Chinese side was certainly petty about something as meaningless and reeking of insecurity as physical height, and scrambled to correct it, I suspect because of the home audience. This is, after all, the country where, during the 2004 Olympics, I witnessed Beijingers chastize the television because there were two athletes receiving medals (I believe in swimming), yet only one was crying, singing and had his hand over his heart. The other one, to the consternation of local Beijing viewers at an open air beer garden, was not holding his hand over his heart. For shame…
My comment to Curzon relates to the fact that both of us were in Vietnam in the past few months, and my impression was that the Vietnamese would be proud, I daresay even more proud, of a soldier of shorter stature standing next to that Indian cornstalk. In Vietnam, as I said, the feeling I got was “Yeah, I’m short. My country is small. So the f**k what? You got a problem with that?” – an attitude, mind you, I can easily relate to as the kid at the back of the line in gym class. Perhaps I’m wrong; I am not aware of an instance where a Vietnamese border guard has been placed standing next to a neighboring countries border guard in a similar ceremony, and I’m not in a rush to Google for it. But regardless of possible Vietnamese reactions, of which I feel confident in my prediction despite my short time, the last minute actions by the Chinese delegation are beyond pathetic. There is some curious thing in Chinese political face-saving that says it doesn’t matter what outsiders actually think, as long as the end result matches the needs of their own internal esteem issues. For further information, see: SARS, The Olympics, official state visits, dumping allegations, etc.
I believe you know from my previous writings, Sun Bin, that I am a staunch defender of China when it is unpopular. But the dick measuring contests have got to stop, or China will never get the recognition it wants and deserves. It pains me to read about these things because its a perfect example of China embarassing itself thanks to its own thin skin. It is precisely this sort of nonsense that also undermines China’s legitimate grievances, such as a lack of recognition of the horrors of Nanjing (sorry, Curzon, but I side more on the Chinese side on China/Japan WW2 reconciliation) and other examples of unfairness. But that is precisely why many lack sympathy, because of this kind of childish oneupsmanship.
For a Chinese perspective that agrees with me, check out Wang Shuo’s Please Don’t Call Me Human (ä¸Â?è¦Â?Ã¥”˜Å 诔°Ã¦Ë†”˜Ã¤ÂºÂº, available in full in Chinese online), in which a Chinese nationalist sports group trains the son of a Boxer rebellion leader to fight a white wrestler, only to get all muddled, give him a sex change, and end up with he/she ripping off his own face at the 1st Annual World Humiliation Games. It’s not like there aren’t Chinese people who know what I’m talking about.
sun bin added these pithy words on 21 Jul 06 at 10:05 pmi had a “:)” mark in front…... it would be interesting if they show the whole picture (including the stool) at the end of the article.
solanki’s legs seem so much longer, and both head-wears are super-tall.anyway, i think the average height of indians are taller than that of chinese. but things may change due to diet/etc. but that is off-topic.
Lexington Green added these pithy words on 22 Jul 06 at 4:28 am
Lexington Green added these pithy words on 22 Jul 06 at 4:30 amOh blast.
Botched the link.
Jing added these pithy words on 22 Jul 06 at 6:05 amUgh don’t get me started about PLA uniforms and their lack of standardization… theres a new standard uniform announced every so often and it always seem its only adopted in a piecemeal manner. Arghghg.
The new PLAAF uniforms are the snazzy exception though, mucho retro in styling. Brings a tear to my iron fisted heart.
http://english.people.com.cn/200511/11/images/airforce.jpg
The indian uniform is colourful… but meh it just doesn’t do anything for me and it just doesn’t look “martial”. What is interesting though is that it is “ethnic” or more appropriately, incorporates elements of traditional Indian design. The ensemble the Chinese soldier is wearing is decidedly not. Aiguillettes and jackboots? Actually, I like aiguillettes and jackboots but what is horrible about the uniform is that you could be forgiven for mistaking the cut for bland vanilla “business casual” US uniforms. The newer uniforms that channel the Nationalist army of the Republican era are in my opinion much better, and somewhat traditional to boot!
davesgonechina added these pithy words on 22 Jul 06 at 6:52 amJing, the officer pictured above is, according to the article, not army. But his outfit, minus the hat, resembles the Indian army summer ceremonial parade uniform:
See uniforms here, Defenceindia.com
All the other Indian uniforms, however, both duty and dress, lack the ethnic touches.
As for the Chinese uniforms, funny, I didn’t think there was a lack of standardization. I always thought the problem was too many armies. There’s the PLA, PAP, the militia reserves, special forces, Xinjiang Bingtuan… but for the PLA, I always thought they pretty much keep it straightforward:
heirabbit added these pithy words on 22 Jul 06 at 3:43 pmThe Indians seem pretty petty too for going and getting a stool. The appropriate action would be to let the Chinese get a stool all by themselves. They’ll look petty all by themselves.
Wasn’t there a similar stage for Japan? Didn’t they have to go everywhere and show everyone how much money they had, even if it meant buying up properties at peak price? I remember for a good ten years news stories about auctions invariably ended with, “the highest bidder was a Japanese businessman buying for a record of dollars.”
The “face” issue is big all over SE Asia (with exception maybe to Vietnam).
sun bin added these pithy words on 22 Jul 06 at 4:04 pmwell, the whole thing, including the report itself, is petty.
these things are everywhere, especially in the county level (the border checkpoint is just a small county and that is what these people care about), worth a laugh, nothing more.when deng xiaoping, hu yaobang, and various japanese leaders took picture with ronald reagan, they did not need a stool.
again, the best solution is to not ‘crop’ the photo, and let us see the surrounding plus whatever stools.
Nitin added these pithy words on 23 Jul 06 at 4:45 amHi all,
Most Indian army units and paramilitary forces have ceremonial uniforms, and within them ‘pilots’ (or parade escorts) have special touches. So the high turban is not unusual at all. It is also common practice to select the tallest chaps for ceremonial duties. (For a snapshot of this, just watch the Republic Day parade on January 15th).
I don’t think the Indians were trying to outdo the Chinese in particular, the competitive element is just there. (Anyone seen the flag lowering gate closing ceremony at the Wagah post between India and Pakistan?)
What surprises me though is why neither the Indians nor the PLA thought of putting an umbrella over both their heads when it started raining. Now, that is something to think about.
heirabbit added these pithy words on 23 Jul 06 at 1:15 pmGood point, å™攓Œ. You’d think there’d at least be a relevant picture to go with the text. That kind of skepticism is very healthy.
