Pranab Mukherjee visits China, under fire

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits China this week, under pressure at home for "appeasing" his country's powerful northern neighbour over a long-running border dispute and over Tibetan protests.

Mukherjee's four-day visit kicks off on Wednesday, with the world's most populous nations talking the language of partnership, but with mistrust never far from the surface.

Trade is flourishing, and will be high on the agenda of the meeting, meant as a follow-up to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in January, officials said.

But a border dispute, which dates back to a 1962 war, still festers. Indian officials in border areas complain of more aggressive Chinese patrolling and encroachment along the Himalayas in the past year, although the central government and senior generals have been at pains to play down the incidents.

Tension also rose after Tibetan protests broke out in India earlier this year. The Indian ambassador was reportedly summoned to the foreign ministry in Beijing for a post-midnight dressing down in late March.

India's response has disappointed many critics.

First, Mukherjee warned the Dalai Lama, who India has hosted for decades, to refrain from any political activity that might harm Sino-Indian relations. The Indian government then closed down central Delhi to allow the Olympic torch relay to pass without protests, albeit without spectators either.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an advocate of closer ties with China while in government, says this was dangerous appeasement.

"The government's craven response to all these endangers India -- for it tempts China," the BJP said after a meeting of its top leaders on Monday, referring to Chinese "incursions".

"That temptation is compounded by the slavish attitude that the ... government has repeatedly demonstrated to China e.g in handling the Olympic torch matter and by the way it is trying to muzzle His Holiness the Dalai Lama."

It is a criticism echoed by local commentators like Bharat Bhushan in the Mail Today, who accused the Indian government of "bending over backwards" to China without any apparent dividend, and accused Mukherjee of "making an ass of himself".

"On Tibet, the kind of public scolding Pranab Mukherjee heaped on the Dalai Lama was astonishing," he wrote.

But Shashi Tharoor, a former U.N. Under Secretary General, author and commentator, argued that India could not afford to alienate a large trading partner and an emerging superpower.

"India will continue to balance delicately on the Tibetan tightrope," he wrote in Pakistan's Daily Times. "Few observers believe the BJP would have conducted itself differently."

China claims large swathes of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and occupies land in Ladakh in the northwest claimed by India. But a fresh dispute emerged in recent weeks when Chinese officials reportedly laid claim to the northernmost tip of the Indian state of Sikkim.

An Indian official admitted there were "areas of concern" in the relationship but said he would rather not focus on them.

Instead of getting into the nitty-gritty of the border dispute, which is the subject of separate talks by special envoys, Mukherjee may be more interested in getting Chinese cooperation over water, he said.

Important Indian rivers like the Brahmaputra rise on the Tibetan plateau, and although China said it has no plans to divert them, New Delhi would like to share hydrological data to better manage water flows downstream.

But Mukherjee has also been criticised at home for getting too involved in domestic politics and the running of government, and not paying enough attention to his foreign portfolio.

He did little to reassure his critics on this score on Tuesday morning.