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An Indian schoolgirl in Chennai wears a Xi Jinping face mask at a rally to welcome the Chinese president to India during a state visit in 2019. Photo: AP

Beijing calls on India to repeat support for one-China policy like G7, Asean did after Pelosi’s Taiwan trip

  • Beijing’s ambassador said the policy formed the ‘foundation’ of bilateral ties, and called for India to ‘openly reiterate’ it as others had
  • New Delhi hasn’t publicly referred to the policy since 2008. A foreign ministry spokesman merely said India’s policies ‘are well known and consistent’
India
Beijing wants India to reaffirm the one-China policy as it seeks to shore up regional support after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which triggered aggressive military drills by the Chinese military around the self-ruled island.
“We hope that the Indian side could openly reiterate its one-China policy like many other countries,” Sun Weidong, China’s ambassador to India, said in a post on the embassy’s website.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of the China-India relations,” he said in a summary of his comments at a briefing in New Delhi on Saturday. More than 170 countries and international organisations have reaffirmed their commitment to the principle, he said.

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Mainland China white paper declares ‘greatest sincerity’ for peaceful reunification with Taiwan

Mainland China white paper declares ‘greatest sincerity’ for peaceful reunification with Taiwan
India follows the one-China policy and recognises the government in Beijing only, but hasn’t mentioned it in bilateral documents or in public statements for a long time. Public sentiment toward China has soured in the wake of deadly border clashes between the two neighbours in 2020, the worst in four decades.
The South Asian nation’s deliberate ambiguity and reluctance to reiterate the principle is in contrast to countries of the region and the G7, whose members include the United States, Britain, Japan and Germany. The G7 foreign ministers said in a statement this month that there was “no change” in the one-China policy or on Taiwan. Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have reaffirmed that they only recognise Beijing.

“India’s relevant policies are well known and consistent,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters on Friday, without mentioning the one-China policy, when asked about the tension around Taiwan. India urged all parties to exercise restraint and avoid unilateral action to change the status quo.

‘We’re ready to curb you’: India sets its foreign policy sights on China

New Delhi has stopped referring to the policy in public since 2008 when Beijing issued a series of statements claiming India’s eastern province of Arunachal Pradesh and issued “stapled” visas to some residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has prompted the Chinese military to carry out military exercises designed to show its ability to encircle the island and cut off the Taiwan Strait, one of the world’s busiest trade routes. It launched missiles that reportedly flew over Taipei and into waters Japan claims as an exclusive economic zone.

Sun, the Chinese ambassador, reiterated China’s stated position that the US and Pelosi were solely responsible for the tension around Taiwan and Beijing’s response, including military drills and sanctions on the US house speaker.

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