Many Chinese still see India as their main enemy: report

Nearly 47 years after the two countries fought a war, many Chinese still perceive India as their main enemy, a British newspaper has claimed.

In an article ahead of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic, 'The Sunday Times' said: "Not everyone in Beijing speaks in the silky language of the foreign ministry. Curiously, the enemy most often spoken of is India."

Interestingly, the censors in China permit alarmingly frank discussion on the Internet of the merits of another war against India to secure the Tibetan plateau, the report said.

However, a retired Chinese officer has claimed that those serving in the People's Liberation Army have no "devotion" to their country.

"Compared with our last war against India in 1962, our equipment is much better but the devotion to country and people of our officers and men is much worse," the paper quoted an unnamed officer as saying.

Even, veterans who know the PLA from the inside say that despite all its shiny new kit, such grandiose ideas mask the reality of a force "that has no recent battle experience and is riddled with corruption".

They describe a system of bribes ranging from 10,000 yuan (909 pounds) to get a good post for a private soldier to 30,000 yuan for a place at military college, the report said.

"If corruption in the army continues, ideology will decay and open the way for religion, while the promotion system risks causing a mutiny," the newspaper quoted General Zhang Shutian, a political commissar, as having said recently.