Liu Zongyi, Secretary-General of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, a visiting fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China and a distinguished fellow of China (Kunming) South Asia & Southeast Asia Institute, wrote in the Global Times (August 4) that after the Galwan Valley clash on June 15, "China-India relations are even deteriorating". He added "During the Galwan Valley clash, it was India that violated the China-India bilateral agreement on the Line of Actual Control. However, China does not want the accidental clash to affect the stability and development of bilateral relations. Therefore, after the clash, China has kept a relatively low profile on a series of issues involving China-India relations, and Chinese media has not reported much on the clash. This is mainly because China wants to save some face for India, and to maintain the overall stability of bilateral relations". He then said "But as the perpetrator, India not only is unrepentant but also continues to create problems and escalate tensions in bilateral relations. India has taken measures to ban Chinese apps, extending bilateral disputes from border issues and politics to economic and trade areas. Now, India is targeting the Confucius Institutes." Mentioning that India's education ministry has decided to review Confucius Institutes and "Confucius classrooms" in association with seven local colleges and universities, he alleged that "Relevant parties in India are deliberately extending bilateral disputes further into the field of people-to-people exchanges, which may completely destroy the foundation of China-India relations". Saying that visionaries, scholars and officials of both sides have worked for decades to "make up for the trust deficit in the political and strategic fields", he said "But India's recent policies toward China suggest that all these efforts may be wasted. Judging by India's policies toward Chinese apps, Chinese companies and Chinese investments in India, the idea of economic cooperation as a stabilizer in China-India relations has failed. Now, India is targeting people-to-people exchanges". He said "India's policy toward China has been completely shadowed by conservative nationalist sentiment, and Indian officials who make policies toward China have almost lost their rationality" and that "Constrained by party struggles and nationalist sentiment, Modi has been caught in the dilemma - He cannot fight a war with China, neither can he make peace with China. But he still fantasizes about using the US to force China to yield. But India's policies toward China are limited, and many of its economic measures are self-destructive. The large-scale spread of COVID-19 has done great harm to India's economic and social development". He tried to portray "The Confucius Institute is just a Chinese language education institution, and Indian students who are proficient in Chinese may have an extra path to employment. India's suppression of the Confucius Institutes reflects the cultural superiority of Hindu nationalism, which is out of a sense of exclusivity. It is exactly the same as the Indian government's suppression of Muslims and Islam. This indicates that Indian society has lost its openness and pluralism". The article claimed "India has taken the initiative to stand at the forefront of the so-called international anti-China campaign to contain and challenge China. China should not only pay close attention to such a tendency but also resolutely counter it".
|
