Answer ‘blows with blows’ if India plays dirty: Chinese media

TIL Desk/World/Beijing-China should not hesitate to answer “blows with blows” if India chooses to play dirty by allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh, the Chinese official media said today. Two English newspapers — China Daily and Global Times — have launched a scathing attack on India after Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said that Arunachal Pradesh — which China claims as part of Southern Tibet — is “an inseparable part of India”.

Taking exception to Rijiju’s remarks, the papers said India is using the Dalai Lama as a “diplomatic tool” against China for its “vice like veto” against India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and UN ban on Jaish-e- Mohammed chief Masood Azhar. “New Delhi not only allowed the 14th Dalai Lama to visit Southern Tibet, a historical Chinese territory India has illicitly occupied and refers to as ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, but the spiritual leader of ‘Tibetan independence’ was also escorted on the trip by India’s junior minister of home affairs,” the state-run China Daily said in its editorial.

“To Beijing, that is a double affront,” it said. “Rijiju might think himself cute in borrowing a line from Beijing’s diplomatic representations, but he has ignored the fundamental distinction here: Like Taiwan and any other part of China, Tibet is a part of the Chinese territory no matter whether New Delhi agrees or not,” it said in an editorial. “Southern Tibet, on the other hand, was stolen from China by his country’s former colonial master taking advantage of China’s internal strife. Should he have any questions regarding the status of Southern Tibet, Rijiju can consult the historical archives,” it said.