First on Indo-Japanese ties which China, apparently, does not like. Of course, India can also take exception to China’s ties with Pakistan which are much stronger. China, like the United States, wants to use Pakistan for its own political purposes and Islamabad has always shown willingness to be enslaved as long as it can bare its teeth at India.
According to the media, the Communist Party of China’s mouthpiece, The Peoples Daily has lashed out at Japanese politicians, terming them “petty burglars”. As for India, the paper said, it has, like China “great vision and great wisdom” with India’s ‘great wisdom’ lying “in dealing with China in a calm way, undisturbed by internal and international provocations”. The paper obviously does not know how Li Keqiang’s views on Pakistan expressed in Islamabad have been received in India where the media has played them down.
In many ways The Free Press Journal (22 May) reflected India’s sentiments when it said that “whether China admits it or not, all of its neighbours view it with suspicion”. China, said the paper, has done nothing to allay their fears and it added: “India refuses to draw the right lessons from its periodic humiliations at the hands of a very aggressive China”. ‘Warned the Free Press Journal: “Whatever the inner dynamics of the power structure in Beijing, it is for India to tell the world that it is no push-over when it comes to defending its territorial integrity”.
Writing in The Asian Age (24 May), K.C. Singh, a former secretary in the External Affairs Ministry said during his visit to India “Mr. Li displayed great public relations skill through body language… leaving every one wondering if this was Hindi-Chini bhai bhai reborn”. However, he added: “Whether it is a genuine shift in Chinese approach to India or a technical repositioning, needs further examination” reflecting Indian suspicions about Beijing.
Meanwhile, The New Indian Express (28 May) pointed out that Japan is a country with which India does not have any competing national interest, no historical baggage like the 1962 War with China and no simmering rivalry”. Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to Japan, said the paper, “should seek to spell out the convergence of the security interests of the two countries in the areas of maritime security etc”. “It is time” said the paper, that both Japan and India “pressurized by China’s territorial claims, looked at adding strategic content to their bilateral relations”.
As C.V.C. Naidu who teaches at Jawaharlal Nehru University said in a recent article in Deccan Herald (30 May) India has been the largest recipient of Japanese aid for the last several years, though in the matter of investments things have not come up to expectations. The paper itself in an editorial (30 May) noted that “fear of ruffling feathers in Beijing is the reason for the timidity of India and Japan, but at the some time “Delhi and Tokyo must not allow themselves to be intimidated (and) as sovereign states they have the right to conduct their diplomacy in the way they wish”.
