Arunachal row: Chinese expert cautions India against Japan’s ’tricks’

Mangalore Today News Network

Beijing, January 23, 2015: China’s angry response this week to the Japanese Foreign Minister’s statement of support for India’s territorial claims on Arunachal continued on Friday with a Chinese strategic expert cautioning India against Japan’s "tricks" to complicate the boundary dispute.

On Monday, Beijing said it had lodged "serious representations" with Tokyo after Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said in New Delhi that Arunachal was "an Indian territory which is disputed by China". China, which holds claims on the State, accused Tokyo of interfering in the dispute, and asked Japan to "be prudent in its words and actions".

After Beijing’s official protest, Kishida was moved to clarify his comments, which were seen as reflecting a change in Japan’s position of not taking a stand in the India-China boundary dispute. Kishida said this week that as India "basically and effectively controls [Arunachal], and China and India are continuing consultations on the border issue, I made the remark taking these facts into account".
 
His clarification has not seemed to assuage Chinese experts. On Friday, Geng Xin, a Chinese strategic expert at Renmin University in Beijing and chief researcher of the Japan-based China Studies Think Tank, told the Communist Party-run tabloid the Global Times that Kishida’s comments had "unveil[ed] Japan’s intent of ’uniting’ the countries that have territorial disputes with China, in an attempt to create a strong impression that Japan, along with China’s other neighboring countries, is bullied by a rising China. In the case of a conflict, Japan can put the blame on China instead of itself."

Geng added, "In this context, wrecking the relationship between China and India would only show that Japan is a country lacking noble manners, and that it will resort to any means in order to achieve its goals."

Geng told the Global Times, which is known for its nationalistic views, that China’s ties with Japan had "hit a historical low point". "But India is not going to fall for Japan’s tricks easily," he added. "As an emerging power, India has made its political philosophy very clear when it comes to Japan’s attitude toward history. Successive governments in India have all clearly expressed that Japan should reflect deeply on its wartime past."

At the same time, he suggested "New Delhi is well aware that it should seek a wise balance in its relations with China and Japan. In the economic realm, for example, the existing Sino-Indian bilateral trade volume has exceeded $70 billion, almost three times the economic and trade volume between India and Japan. Not only that, China’s experience of development is a positive lesson for India, and India has also showed its interest to learn from it".

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday