China has upped the ante against India following junior home minister Kiren Rijiju’s statement that Arunachal is an integral part of India and raising Dalai Lama’s visit to the state is none of its business. Rijiju was at the receiving end of Chinese media for his comments that seems to have ruffled feathers in Chinese dispensation.
Launching a scathing attack on Rijiju, China daily in its editorial said “Rijiju might think himself cute in borrowing a line from Beijing’s diplomatic representations, but he has ignored the fundamental distinction here: Like Taiwan and any other part of China, Tibet is a part of the Chinese territory no matter whether New Delhi agrees or not,”
“If New Delhi chooses to play dirty, however, Beijing should not hesitate to answer blows with blows,” the daily said referring to Lama’s visit to Arunachal.
To Rijiju’s assertion that southern Tibet is “an inseparable part of India”, China Daily reached back into history to British colonial times.
Southern Tibet, it said, “was stolen from China by his country’s former colonial master taking advantage of China’s internal strife.”
Global times also took swipe at Rijiju saying, “The Dalai Lama has been to the disputed region before, but what makes this trip different is that he is received and accompanied by India’s Junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju.”
The Global Times edit threatened Beijing’s interference in Kashmir, without naming the border state..
“With a GDP several times higher than that of India, military capabilities that can reach the Indian Ocean and having good relations with India’s peripheral nations, coupled with the fact that India’s turbulent northern state borders China, if China engages in a geopolitical game with India, will Beijing lose to New Delhi?” the edit threatened.
On Wednesday, China said it will lodge a diplomatic protest over Lama’s Arunachal visit.”India in disregard to China’s concerns obstinately arranged the Dalai Lamas visit to the disputed part of the eastern part of China-India border causing serious damage to Chinas interests and China-India relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters.
