‘India must avoid two-front conflict’ Modi, Xi did not have bilateral meeting at G20 summit: China
SIKKIM STANDOFF Newspapers also warn India about ‘burning itself’ over its support to Tibet and the Dalai Lama at the cost of Bhutan
Chinese media led by official news agency Xinhua on Monday continued to name and shame India for “trespassing” into China’s territory, saying New Delhi’s “bloated self-assertiveness” had triggered the standoff near the Sikkim border.
The commentary by Xinhua, an official organ of the Chinese government, made a specific reference to minister Arun Jaitley’s comment that India now is different from what it was in 1962.
“Bluffing about a potential clash that could be similar to that 55 years ago when India’s military suffered a bitter defeat, Indian defence minister Arun Jaitley said, “India in 2017 is different from India in 1962,” implying the country’s improved military strength and bloated self-assertiveness,” it said.
State-controlled newspapers went about their anti-India chore with warnings that included threat of Chinese interference in J&K and cautioning New Delhi against getting involved in a twofront conflict with China and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Lin Mingwang from the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai told the Global Times: “China has nothing to do with the situation in Kashmir, but it would be unwise for India to engage in two conflicts at the same time.”
Chinese media, possibly with the government’s tacit approval, has begun to rake up the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan more frequently. One scholar said if Pakistan requests, “a third country” could send its army to Kashmir the same way India intervened in Bhutan.
India will “burn” itself if it uses the ‘Dalai Lama card’ to exert pressure on China amid the ongoing military standoff near the Sikkim border, state media said Monday referring to the hoisting of the Tibetan flag on the shores of a lake in Ladakh.
“If New Delhi is pulling the strings of the Tibetan exiles’ political act of flag-hoisting, it will only have burned itself. Both border issues and the Tibet question concern China’s core interests and China won’t yield to provocations,” the newspaper said.
An editorial in the China Daily said New Delhi is pursuing its security concerns at the Sino-Indian border in Sikkim at the cost of Bhutan’s sovereignty, adding that the idea that Beijing will attack the Siliguri Corridor is “ridiculous”.
China on Monday sought to play down a brief conversation Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping had on the sidelines of the recent G20 summit, saying the two “did not have a bilateral meeting”.
Technically, China is correct but the fact is the Indian side didn’t claim the two leaders held a bilateral meeting, which is usually a structured and previously agreed engagement.
“I can tell you there was no bilateral meet between President Xi and PM Modi in Germany,” foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told a regular media briefing when asked about the meeting.
The conversation between the two leaders at an informal gathering of BRICS leaders on the margins of the G20 Summit in Hamburg on July 7 lasted about five minutes and made headlines. It came against the backdrop of a tense standoff between troops of the two countries along India’s northeastern frontier.
China’s denial of something that didn’t happen is being seen as yet another attempt by Beijing to make its displeasure known over the face-off in Donglang or Doklam region.
“According to my information, the two leaders did not hold any bilateral meeting (on the sidelines of the G20 summit),” Geng said, adding Xi chaired the informal meeting of BRICS leaders that was attended by Modi and others. Repeatedly denying the bilateral meeting, Geng also didn’t mention the conversation the two leaders had.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay had on July 7 tweeted a photo of the two leaders smiling and shaking hands. He said Modi and Xi had a “conversation on a range of issues”.
Responding to a question about Indian media reports that soldiers were prepared for the long haul in Donglang, Geng said the reports, if true, revealed India’s true intentions.
“If (the reports) are true, then that only proves that the illegal trespass by the Indian side is organised and deliberate. They intended to destroy and damage the status quo at the boundary area of China and India. So how can diplomatic solutions happen under such circumstances?” he said.