India-China standoff | PM Modi’s remarks will help ease tensions: Chinese media

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark on the India-China face-off that no one had intruded into Indian territory was welcomed by Chinese media. It said that it would pave the way for de-escalation, The Hindu has reported. The comment, however, has been criticised by opposition parties in India.

According to the report, the state-run Global Times in China quoted PM Modi as saying “no one entered Indian territory nor were Indian posts taken over” on the border standoff with China.

With the quote, as per the publication, the Chinese observed that PM Modi was “trying to respond to the nationalists and hardliners with tough talk.” But, he understands that India “cannot have a further conflict with China so he is also making an effort to cool tensions.”

In the Global Times report, Lin Minwang - a professor at Fudan University’s Center for South Asian Studies in Shanghai - said that PM Modi’s remarks would be “very helpful to ease the tensions” because, as the prime minister of India, he had “removed the moral basis for hardliners to further accuse China”.

The professor further told the publication that when India is in conflict with Pakistan or other neighbours, “nationalism might drive New Delhi to take actual operations, but when it comes to China, it is a different story,” said the report.

The publication quoting Wei Dongxu, a military expert, said that PM Modi’s comment that the armed forces are being allowed to take necessary steps was “a show of strength for domestic audiences to appease the Indian masses and boost the Indian troops’ morale”.

Union Minister and former Army chief General VK Singh’s remark that China had lost at least 40 soldiers in the standoff with the Indian Army, was also called an attempt “to placate the nationalists by making speculations and satisfy the hardliners” by the publication.

Besides Global Times, China Daily also talked about PM Modi’s remark. In an article, analyst Lan Jianxue of the China Institute of International Studies blamed the “the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party pushing forward its ultranationalist Hindutva agendas one after another through aggressive domestic and foreign policies.”

Lan recalled PM Modi’s remarks from 2018 where he said that that there were “occasional incidents in the border areas due to differing perceptions about the Line of Actual Control” and both countries had managed to resolve those peacefully. “It is hoped that India will abide by that statement,” said Lan, as per the report.