China’s Consul General in Mumbai said it was “self-contradictory” to ask China to keep supply chains open, amid a current surge in Indian imports of supplies, while at the same time “threatening decoupling” between the Indian and Chinese economies.
He also hit out at the India-United States-Japan-Australia grouping, known as the Quad, describing it as “an attempt for containment”.
“It is self-contradictory for some Indian media and think tanks to ask China keeping the supply chain open on the one hand, and threaten decoupling with China on the other. Such opportunistic and protective ideas will only add up to the problem,” said Tang Guocai. He was speaking at a seminar on Tuesday on poverty reduction organised by China’s Consulate in Mumbai, along with the South Indian Education Society in Mumbai and the Yunnan International Research Centre, according to remarks published on the consulate’s website.
Working together
He said organisations and businesses in China were “making every effort supporting India to fight the virus”. “As a matter of fact, China is providing the vast majority of oxygen concentrators and other medical supplies India needs,” Mr. Tang said. “China is the first country to get out of the pandemic and resume development, offering India and the region huge opportunities. We are glad to find the second wave of COVID-19 here is melting down. As two of the world’s largest vaccine producers, China and India have every reason to join hand and work for the final victory against the pandemic in our region and the world.”
Since early April, Chinese firms had received orders for more than 60,000 oxygen concentrators from Indian firms, of which around half have been exported, in addition to more than 5,000 ventilators. India has asked China to keep supply chains open to ensure smooth movement of goods after Sichuan Airlines last month announced a 15-day suspension in cargo flights. The airline later said it would resume services. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said earlier this month companies had been encountering difficulties in logistics, but following his April 30 conversation with his counterpart Wang Yi, approvals had been expedited and the logistics chain was flowing.
China’s government has criticised India’s recent moves to not include its telecom firms in 5G trials and to place more stringent curbs on FDI coming in from countries that share a border with India, seen widely as being aimed at Beijing.
RCEP deal
On calls to accelerate decoupling from China, Mr. Tang said “Western ‘Hawkish strategy’ and ‘wolf pack tactics’ will eventually shoot themselves in the foot”, as he drew a contrast between the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal, which India withdrew from, and the Quad, describing RCEP as bringing in “a new wave of multilateralism and free trade”.
“The integration and development of East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia are unstoppable,” he said “RCEP has always opened its door to India,” he said. “On the other hand, ‘the group of four’ (Quad) advocates so-called democratic alliance, and targets certain specific country in an attempt for containment.”
He said China’s experiences in poverty reduction, particularly its rural revitalisation strategy, offered lessons for India, with the government last year announcing the eradication of absolute poverty. Poverty eradication was premised on the idea that “China does not simply ‘transfuse blood’ to the poor, but to encourage them to work hard and ‘make blood’ themselves”.
He also slammed the West for hindering China’s development and said “under the pretext of the so-called democracy and human rights issues, they disrupt the agriculture industry of developing countries”. “For instance, the West has been fabricating the so-called “cotton human rights” issue in Xinjiang, China,” he said referring to allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses in the cotton industry.
“In fact, India’s cotton-spinning and agriculture also suffered likewise,” he said. “They are actually trying to create racial divisions politically and stifle the foundation of national rejuvenation economically, so that China and India will remain poor and weak forever.”