Chinese Twist In the Tellis Tale

No one might ever know what prompted Ashley Tellis, a wellknown foreign policy analyst who has held senior positions in the US government, to tread the dark path that led to his arrest for illegal possession of secret documents. But it might explain his recent deeply critical writing of India, negative comparisons with China and wholesale endorsement of the “democratic backsliding” charge levelled by critics of the Modi government at home and abroad.

Tellis may not be the only ‘expert’ to punt for China and run down India but in his case, there has been a change in orientation. As a special assistant to the US ambassador in New Delhi in 2001-03, Tellis came across as a refreshing voice free from Western prejudices about India and willing to see Pakistan’s duplicity on terrorism and ties with India for what it is. The Mumbai-born Tellis stood out on this count. His drift into the pro-China camp became more pronounced in recent years. In a media interaction in 2022, Tellis asserted India’s thermonuclear test during Pokhran-II in 1998 was a failure and felt India could be compelled to test again. His suggestion that US should not penalise such a decision was disingenuous— he knew an Indian test will void the India-US nuclear deal. His criticism of India on account of “polarisation” and “majoritarianism” was twinned with emphasising China’s lead over India. The US Department of Justice affidavit details Tellis’ contacts with Chinese officials on four occasions where they were overheard discussing Iranian-Chinese relations and US-Pakistan ties.

Any such contact is to be reported and as a former member of the National Security Council and an unpaid defence contractor with access to classified information, Tellis would know this. A court-ordered search revealed hundreds of pages of classified documents in Tellis’ possession. Video surveillance in September and October found Tellis extracting documents at official facilities, which included US air force tactics and renaming them under innocuous labels. Attempts to shield Tellis from the charge of spying for China as the affidavit implies but does not directly state may not work. Tellis was an affable and well-connected figure with friends in policy and media circles and some of the shock might be genuine. But his actions cannot be explained away as mere indiscretions.