Chinese Daily musing: ‘Modi will face poll heat with border tension’
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, August 16: In a hawkish commentary to peddle Beijing’s hard-heeled stance on standoff across the line of actual control in eastern Ladakh, a Chinese daily has claimed that “any further border conflicts would be disadvantageous for Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party”. The commentary in Global Times, known to be the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, also suggested that participation of Xi Jinping, President of China, in the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit is not yet certain.
“India is also concerned about the escalation of China-India conflicts. Particularly, with India’s upcoming general election next year, any further border conflicts would be disadvantageous for Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party,” wrote Liu Zongyi in the Chinese daily.
It may be noted that Global Times is known to peddle the views of the Chinese Communist Party, and mostly carries propaganda materials. “If the China-India relationship is in an extremely tense state, it will not be conducive for the Chinese leader’s participation, which will greatly impact the success of the G20 summit. In a few days, leaders from both China and India will attend the BRICS leaders’ summit in South Africa, and the tense relationship between the two countries will also hinder communication between the leaders,” added Liu in the write up.
The commentary sought to reflect on the outcome of the meeting of the 19th commanders’ level of the two countries during August 13-14. The Indian side reportedly is insisting on the patrolling rights in Depsang and Demchok areas, which are being resisted by China.
“India keeps repeating that China should restore the situation in the border areas to the so-called status quo before April 2020 as a precondition for easing bilateral relations. The Indian military has maintained a large-scale deployment in the border areas. India’s unreasonable demands cannot be met,” added the Chinese daily.
India’s former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal wondered on X that “China will keep aggressive posture on border/won’t resolve remaining issues, but all this isn’t important & shouldn’t colour future ties!” in reaction to the main theme of the Chinese daily write up asking India not to hold back the bilateral ties to the border tension.
“Xi not attending G 20 meet will be pol (political) set back to China, taking shine off its new ‘peace making’ posture,” added Sibal. It may be noted that India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar has said on several occasions that the bilateral ties cannot be normal in the face of the border tension.
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