China at it again: Raises Arunachal ploy to distract India
For the third year in a row, the Chinese have renamed places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which they call Zangnan and keep claiming as the southern part of Tibet. New Delhi has rejected Beijing’s “vain and preposterous” move, while reiterating that “Arunachal was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.” This time, China has carried out the provocative exercise amid India-Pakistan tensions in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and the retaliatory Operation Sindoor. During the recent turbulence in the subcontinent, Islamabad has been firmly backed by Beijing, its all-weather friend.
Last year, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar asked a pointed question dripping with sarcasm, “If today I change the name of your house, will it become mine?” But China has chosen to ignore the message and again gone ahead with the “standardisation” of geographical names. Apparently, Beijing has done it not only to distract India but also to show solidarity with Pakistan, which received a stern warning from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on Monday. The PM also expressed India’s intent to hold talks on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and China has chipped in for its ally by reaffirming its territorial claims over Arunachal – no matter how baseless they are.
The Modi government has also taken a serious note of the Pakistan propaganda allegedly spread by Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times. On May 7, the Indian Embassy in China had rebuked Global Times for reporting that Pakistan’s military had shot down an Indian fighter jet without verifying facts and sources. Delhi blocked the Chinese mouthpiece's X-account handle for a few hours in India on Wednesday The Chinese mischief flies in the face of their leaders’ recent overtures towards India. A ballet between the dragon and the elephant, as envisioned by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, is a distant dream as long as China keeps shielding Pakistan.
