CHINA-INDIA: GLOBAL TIMES WARNS INDIA AGAINST WESTERN FLATTERY AND SAYS CHINA IS FAR AHEAD IN NUMBER AND TECHNOLOGY OF AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
The Global Times (September 2) published an article warning India not to be taken in by
"Western flattery" praising India for its first indigenously built aircraft carrier. The article
quoted Lan Jianxue, Director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute
of International Studies, as saying "China has never regarded India as a threat, nor has China
taken India as an imaginary rival and target when it develops its own aircraft carriers and navy
forces," and that "India's biggest enemy is its own poverty, backwardness and insufficient
development as some Indian scholars have acknowledged". It also quoted Chinese military
expert commentator Song Zhongping as warning: "If India falls into the Western public opinion
trap to provoke China and regard China as its "main rival" that needs to be contained, it will
gain no benefits but only become a cannon fodder". "China is ahead of India in terms of both
the number and technology of aircraft carriers and China's carrier localization rate is higher
than that of India."
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