China red-faced, deletes envoy’s suggestion to rename CPEC

THE SUGGESTION MADE BY LUO ZHAOHUI, INDIAN ENVOY, WAS REMOVED FROM HIS SPEECH PUBLISHED ON THE EMBASSY WEBSITE

BEIJING: An embarrassed China has expunged its India envoy’s suggestion that Beijing could think about renaming the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to allay New Delhi’s concerns.

India has reservations about the ambitious project as it passes through Pakistan-occupiedKashmir, which New Delhi says challenges its sovereignty by lending legitimacy to Pakistan’s claim over the territory.

The suggestion, made by Luo Zhaohui, has been removed from the version of his speech published on the Chinese embassy’s website.

With Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expected in Beijing next week for the high-profile belt and road forum (BRF), it would have been awkward for Beijing to be seen tweaking the name of the expensive and prestigious project.

And, that too on behalf of India, which has firmly refused to be part of President Xi Jinping’s multi-billion dollar One Road, One Belt (OBOR) initiative that aims to build a new Silk route. Luo made the remark while speaking at the United Service Institution (USI) in New Delhi on Friday.

“It (CPEC) has no connections to or impact on sovereignty issues. Even we can think about renaming the CPEC. China and India have had successful experience of de-linking sovereignty disputes from bilateral relations before,” Luo said in a closed-door address to a think tank.

The address was made public over the weekend with references to the “renaming” of the CPEC and the four-point agenda to improve bilateral ties that have taken a beating over various issues, including the economic corridor.

The rest of Luo’s speech has been left untouched. The foreign ministry declined comment when asked about the “deletion” at a regular briefing on Tuesday.

“According to my information, the Chinese embassy has released relevant information on the website. I have nothing more to add,” spokesperson Geng Shuang said.