Jayanth Jacob
The Hindustan Times
October 1, 2010

New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- President Hu Jintao’s key
trouble-shooter Zhou Yongkang, known as a
security czar in the Chinese establishment, is
set to visit India later this year. Zhou , a
member of the politburo of the Chinese Communist
Party and the secretariat of the party’s central
committee, will be the highest ranking

Chinese official to visit India since both
countries started celebrating 60 years of diplomatic ties this year.

He is also said to have a key role in China’s Tibet policy.

Zhou had planned to visit India last November.
However, the Chinese side called it off in the
wake of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunanchal
Pradesh, which the Chinese consider disputed territory.

According to Indian officials, the visit is
likely to take place in November-December. Zhou
is keen on meeting leaders of the Congress, BJP, CPM and CPI.

While both countries are keen on continuing
political exchanges, top government sources said
New Delhi would review defence exchanges with
China — which had been put on hold — to evaluate
whether there is any change in Beijing’s position on Jammu and Kashmir.

The defence exchanges had been put on hold after
Lt Gen B.S. Jaswal, the Northern Command chief
whose jurisdiction included Jammu and Kashmir,
was denied permission to visit China.

However, Beijing had maintained that neither had
they suspended the defence exchange programme nor
did India inform them about the same.

"We have a set of concerns ranging from the
stapled visa issue to Chinese activities in the
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. We wanted to give
Chinese time to address the concerns... We will
be reviewing the situation sometime this month," said a senior official.