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CPM lobbies for the Chinese

The party is pushing for security clearance for two Chinese companies for the Vizhinjam port project.

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The party is pushing for security clearance for two Chinese companies for the Vizhinjam port project.

NEW DELHI: With the CPI(M) mounting pressure on the Centre for security clearance to two Chinese firms - Kaidi Electric Power Company and China Harbour Engineering Company, which are part of a consortium led by the Mumbai-based Zoom Developers to build the Rs43.6 billion port project in Vizhinjam, Kerala, the Prime Minister's Office has asked the Marxist honchos to sort out the issue with defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, who also heads the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The matter assumes significance in view of the forthcoming India visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Chinese leader is expected to discuss with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the "blacklisting" of Chinese firms by India.

The Centre had last month rejected CPI(M)-led Kerala government's request for clearance for Vizhinjam project citing security reasons involving Chinese firms.

Intelligence agencies such as the IB and RAW have expressed reservations in engaging Chinese firms in telecom sector and the construction of ports. Left sources said Chinese companies are interested in building as many as 13 ports across the country at a cost of Rs60,000 crore.

Prime Minister's principal secretary TKA Nair last week asked politburo member Sitaram Yechury to discuss the matter with Mukherjee. Last month, Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan met the Prime Minister twice requesting him to clear the Vizhinjam project.

Janapaksham, a people's movement in Kerala, said on Saturday it would protest against the Centre's delay in giving clearance to the project when Prime Minister visits the state for the state's 50th Formation Day celebrations on November 1. The organisation said it would raise the slogan "No Vizhinjam, No Kerala Day Celebrations" when Singh visits Thiruvananthapuram. The comrades are hopeful that the defence minister would endorse their stand that the security threat from the Chinese firms has been vastly exaggerated.

Mukherjee had recently said the "relations between India and China have a global, strategic character and there is no scope for the two countries to contain each other".

The two countries should "feed each other's strengths and not exploit their differences," he said, adding that "It is one of the priorities of our foreign policy to develop friendly and cooperative ties with China."

Yechury to visit China
NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha MP and CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury is leaving for Beijing for a week's visit from Monday on an invitation from the Communist Party of China. Yechury, who is leading a five-member team of party's central committee members, would meet Vice Minister of International Department and leaders of the Central Policy Study Group on Marxism.

Coming days before Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India, Yechury's visit is expected to help both Beijing and New Delhi acquire a better perspective of their relations. Yechury's China visit comes at a time when the CPI(M) is playing a key role in the Indian politics as also in the stability of the UPA government.

The CPI(M) leader briefed UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior officials in the foreign office on Sunday about his visit. Foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, a China expert and former envoy in Beijing, had also held talks with Yechury last week.

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