Chinese experts have warned India against “two-front conflict” with China and Pakistan, the latest in a series of belligerent statements that have appeared in the media on the month-long
border standoff between the two countries.
In the last few days, the Chinese state media, which has aggressively taken up the border impasse, has
raked up the Kashmir dispute to send a message to India.
Aside from the border spat with China, India was also embroiled
an exchange of fire along the Kashmir border with Pakistan, the Global Times said on Monday.
“Both India and Pakistan accused each other of initiating the incident on Saturday that caused civilian deaths on both sides of their controlled border in Kashmir,” the newspaper said, quoting reports from India.
It would not be a good idea for India to open two fronts, it said, adding Indian troops that “entered Chinese territory” were
yet to retreat to their side.
“China has nothing to do with the situation in Kashmir, but it would be unwise for India to engage in two conflicts at the same time,” Lin Mingwang from the Institute of International Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University told Global Times.
This the second time in as many days that the Chinese media tried to add a Kashmir dimension to the impasse in Doklam, a region located at the narrow but strategically important tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
China accuses India of trespass and preventing its soldiers from building a road in Doklam, or Donglang as the Chinese call it.
On Sunday a scholar wrote in the English-language tabloid that if Pakistan were to request, “
a third country” could dispatch soldiers to the Kashmir Valley the same way India had intervened on behalf of Bhutan.
Talking to the state media and citing
a safety advisory issued by the Chinese embassy over the weekend, experts also said the current tensions made India an “unsuitable destination for Chinese to travel or do business in”.
China is India’s biggest trading partners outside the EU, with the balance heavily tilted in favour of Beijing. The bilateral trade has grown 10 folds over the last decade to $71 billion.
On the travel advisory, the newspaper said it was issued because the Chinese government was taking precautions.
“The current tension makes India an unsuitable destination for Chinese to travel or do business in, which is why the Chinese embassy in India warns that the situation has already had an impact on normal exchanges between the two countries,” Hu Zhiyong from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences said.
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