DHARAMSHALA, December 1: From describing India as “a lesser power” just a few months back to now “pushy”, New Delhi’s bold stance against Chinese tantrums, it seems, have certainly turned a few important heads in Beijing.
The Business Standard, in an article, quoted a “highly-placed” US government source confirming China’s rejection of a proposal made by the US in June for a trilateral dialogue with India on the grounds that India was a “lesser power”.
The US government source speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the proposal was made during the conversations between US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, and Chinese vice-minister Cui Tiankai, at their inaugural US-China consultations on the Asia-Pacific region in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“The Chinese were very clear and told the Americans that there was no need for a lesser power, like India, to participate in a dialogue among equals, such as the US and China,” the US government source was quoted as saying in the article.
The US government source confirmed that the Americans were “quite taken aback by the quietly confident manner in which the Chinese turned down the US suggestion on India”.
India, Japan and the US are now scheduled to meet for their first ever trilateral dialogue in mid-December in Washington DC.
In a move to improve its ties with the ASEAN countries, India last month decided to take up Vietnam’s offer to explore two oil blocks in the South China seas, a decision which Chinese state media termed as “playing with fire”.
When the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the East Asia summit in Bali last week, the PM insisted India’s interests were “purely commercial”.
Following India’s rejection of Beijing’s demand to scrap a global Buddhist congregation in New Delhi last week which the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama was scheduled to address, the 15th round on Sino-India boundary talks were subsequently postponed.
Now, days after Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei stopped short of naming India while declaring that China “opposed any country that provided a platform to the Dalai Lama,” a leading Chinese official newspaper has said that China must start taking an of late “pushy” India seriously.
The Communist Party of China managed Global Times, in an editorial tiled ‘China and India mustn’t go for the throat’ has said that of late India appears to be interested in having a face-off with China and Beijing should start taking it seriously.
“India, whose GDP is a third of China’s, has been maintaining a bold stance when dealing with China,” the editorial said.
Taking a sharp u-turn from its earlier confrontational assertions calling for the use of “every possible means” to resolutely stop India-Vietnam cooperation, the Global Times, on a more conciliatory note, said that “both sides must keep the border issue from worsening by focusing on keeping goodwill talks alive”.
“Currently, India is a bit pushy in its relations with China. The country appears to be highly interested in facing off with China,” it said.
Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Indian in January, months before he takes over the mantle of leadership from Hu Jintao next year.
