Japan misleading India; don't want to confront Beijing directly: Chinese daily
Beijing: Days after Modi-Abe meet during latter’s visit to India, Chinese media on Monday accused Japan of misleading India, stating that the Tokyo doesn't really want to confront Beijing directly.
Chinese state-run media, Global Times in an editorial said, “India should be wary of being misled by Japan in confronting China, while Tokyo benefits from New Delhi's face-off with Beijing”.
However, the editorial lacks to describe, how Japan would be benefited from India-China face-off. China has been luring India for the high-speed train project, 80 per cent funded by Japan’s Shinkansen group under five-year construction plan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, accompanied with his wife and delegation; inaugurated the ambitious 508 kilometres Bullet Train project from Ahemdabad to Mumbai.
Chin has been curios with India’s infrastructure development agenda as the Global Times taunting in the editorial said, “India's infrastructure is where China's was 20 years ago”.
The editorial, taking dig at India’s development policy, said, “New Delhi has just started building expressways and high-speed railway, but roads in smaller cities and rural areas are still akin to dirt tracks”.
Failing to get the opportunity of building India’s maiden high-speed train, the Chinese media said in the editorial that “Beijing has developed trade and investment ties with European, Asian and African nations. The BRI is a culmination of China's growing economic footprint and is definitely not an illusion”.
The editorial urges both India and Japan, to work with China for a win-win situation in Asian-subcontinent as the editorial states, “China, Japan and India - the three major Asian powers - can foster pragmatic cooperation, which could be a win-win situation for regional progress and development as well”.
Meanwhile, earlier on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying in and official statement said, “Any third party should respect the efforts made by China and India to settle the disputes through negotiation”.
China expressed its dissatisfaction over Japan's investment plan in northeast India as the former shares a border with India along Arunchal Pradesh, which angered it as joint statement failed to mention Beijing’s reference.
Similarly, “Any third party should not meddle in the disputes between China and India over territorial sovereignty in any form,” Chinese foreign ministry added.
The India-Japan joint statement read, "The two Prime Ministers welcomed the India-Japan cooperation on development of India's North Eastern Region (NER) as a concrete symbol of developing synergies between India's Act East policy and Japan's Free and Open Indo Pacific Strategy."
