In Global Times website on Monday evening, Hu said, “If India keeps ignoring China’s warnings, war is inevitable.”
Calling New Delhi as “naive” now as the Jawaharlal Nehru government was in 1962, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s state-run newspaper Global Times, on Monday said, “New Delhi isn’t preparing for the worst but rather is teaching Indian citizens to just hope for the best. Is the Indian government like a church leading its citizens in prayer?” In a 1-minute-42-second video posted on the Global Times website on Monday evening, Hu said, “If India keeps ignoring China’s warnings, war is inevitable.”
Government officials in New Delhi rejected such “war-mongering” by the Global Times editor-in-chief and said that they do not wish to comment on any provocative statements at a time “diplomats are talking” to address the standoff over Doklam. Hu, who releases short videos on the Global Times website almost every week, referred to Indian media reports that despite all the angry rhetoric, Indian security authorities are reasonably sure China wouldn’t risk starting a war, not even a small scale military operation.
“Of course China doesn’t want war,” he said in the video. “We hope to restore peace and to get along with one another. That really goes without saying. But if Indian forces continue to hang around on Chinese soil, that’s something completely different. I am very surprised that Indian security authorities would say otherwise. And make such guarantees to the media that China wouldn’t take military action.” “If Indian security authorities want to trick the (Narendra) Modi administration, I think war will be hard to avoid. Because this means India is emboldened enough not to heed China’s warning, leaving war as the only possible solution left. In 1962, the Nehru government was confident that China wouldn’t strike. India is as naive now as it was back then. What a curious country,” Hu said, signing off.
