Articles By Claude Arpi
France Strikes Again
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 25 May , 2016
In France, May is traditionally the month of pleasant weather, but also the period when the French go on strike. Considering that as a student I lived through the momentous month of May 1968, I...
Will China Collapse?
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 30 Apr , 2016
Being a China watcher is a difficult job. It can however make you rich or famous, provided you write something many in the West will enjoy: the announcement of the Middle Kingdom’s ‘coming...
China: Civilian intrastructure used for military purpose on the plateau
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 27 Apr , 2016
I have often written about the dual use of the infrastructure in China (andparticularly on the Tibetan plateau). Yesterday, Xinhua reported that during their bi-monthly session, the Standing...
The Lonely Man of China
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 15 Apr , 2016
Xi Jinping seems more and more the lonely man of China. It is perhaps what happens when one reaches the top alone. To add to the Chinese President’s woes, the ‘Panama Papers’ named his...
A Road to the Border in Arunachal
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 12 Apr , 2016
It is regrettable that the national media hardly reported an event has the most crucial strategic implications for India. On April 6, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) opened a new road to one...
The Arrogant Men of 1962
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 07 Apr , 2016
The 1962 debacle against China is a story of arrogance. Defence Minister Krishna Menon was undoubtedly the most arrogant man of the subcontinent, but there are many other arrogant personae in...
Tibet's Invasion: the Last Warning
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 05 Apr , 2016
An interesting exchange between the Indian Prime Minister (Jawaharlal Nehru), the Political Officer in Sikkim (Harishwar Dayal) and the Head of the Indian Mission in Tibet (Sumul Sinha) took...
Jawaharlal: did he want Tawang or not?
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 01 Apr , 2016
I republish this article on Maj Bob Khathing, one of the most illustrious sons of the Assam Rifles. Without his skills and his intelligence of the area, Tawang would perhaps be Chinese...
Rafale Fighter Jet: Deal, No Deal?
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 21 Mar , 2016
During the recently conducted Indian Air Force drill (‘Iron Fist Exercise 2016’) in Pokhran, Rajasthan, attended by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Air Chief Marshal...
When Dalai Lama was to fly from Lhasa to India
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 23 Feb , 2016
An episode, not very not well-known, was the possibility to ‘evacuate’ the Dalai Lama from Lhasa soon after the Chinese troops crossed the Upper Yangtze river and entered Chamdo in 1950. S.N....
The Sichuan-Tibet rail-line on the way
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 05 Feb , 2016
The China Daily reported that the construction of a 1,629-kilometer Sichuan-Tibet railway will start in 2016. Lobsang Gyaltsen, the Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government...
Rafales or not Rafales
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 27 Jan , 2016
How to assess the State Visit of a foreign dignitary? After following for 2 days the visit of President Francois Hollande of France in Delhi earlier this week, it was the question I asked...
Hollande's Visit: The Security Angle
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 20 Jan , 2016
The French have recently rediscovered their old Gaulish belligerent genes. The list of France’s present military intervention outside its territory is long and the locations spread over two...
Tibet ...with Chinese Characteristics
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 18 Jan , 2016
A few weeks ago, The New York Times published a stunning photo feature on a horse festival held in the Batang Grasslands, near Jyekundo in Eastern Tibet (today Qinghai province of China). Yushu,...
When Nehru was taken for a ride by Mao
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 10 Jan , 2016
One often-asked question is: why did India not take a stronger stand on the Tibet issue in October/November 1950, when Eastern Tibet was invaded by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army? One of...
China’s PLA sings Jai Ho as India goes for Border Defence
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 08 Jan , 2016
On New Year day, a Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) between India and China was held in a Chinese hut near a place called Damai, north of the Lohit sector of Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian delegation...
China’s New War over Internet
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 23 Dec , 2015
Beijing irredentism is not restricted to the China Seas, Beijing also wants to be the leader in cyberspace and impose its own law. President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the World Internet...
A Soldier with Two Wives
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 14 Dec , 2015
Lakshman Singh, a slim young captain had two wives when, in May 1962, he was told to join the ill-fated 7 Infantry Brigade on the Namkha chu (river) of the then North East Frontier Agency (NEFA);...
Occupy Chumbi Valley: A Top Secret Cable from Harishwar Dayal
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 13 Dec , 2015
On November 21, 1950, hardly a month after the People’s Liberation Army had invaded Tibet and occupied the town of Chamdo, the Political Officer in Sikkim, Harishwar Dayal send a Top Secret cable...
Know yourself, know your Enemy
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 08 Dec , 2015
It was probably in late 1963. A senior Indian Army officer, just released from a PoW camp in Tibet where he had spent 7 months in dreadful conditions, went to Grindlays Bank on Connaught Place in...