Chinese netizens feel Delhi inciting Beijing

China has diplomatically been on the aggressive against India in the ongoing standoff near the Sikkim sector.

The reaction of Chinese citizens, however, has evolved in the past two weeks — scepticism that the countries will go to war, some anger that Indian soldiers had “trespassed” into Chinese territory, but primarily a shrug, saying the impasse wasn’t that important to them — yet.

Till Friday, the Sikkim standoff was not among the top 10 “hot” topics on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Many among the online citizens felt India had provoked China by crossing into its territory. They felt that increasingly close diplomatic and military ties between India and US had played a part in triggering the standoff and were of the opinion that China shouldn’t hesitate to go to battle to protect its territory.

Chinese newspapers and websites have splashed the news, and the Chinese perspectives on the standoff prominently. Cartoons and tweets have been circulated widely as well. A blog written by Wangcha Sangey, a Bhutan lawyer, was widely shared online after it was translated in Chinese.

The tone of the blog was a hit among Chinese online users. “Bhutan is placed in a near-impossible position. China will never surrender the strategic position that she had already gained at Doklam Plateau during negotiation on international boundary with India (the state of Sikkim). And India is insisting upon Bhutan to wrest from China larger portion of Doklam Plateau that India could not get whilst negotiating with China on Sikkim-Tibet international boundary,” the blog said.

As HT noted earlier, many Weibo users were talking about the “annexation” of Sikkim by India and said a similar situation should not arise with Bhutan. However, the online anger against India hasn’t turned to hatred.