China blames India's pol system for border impasse

Blaming India and its multi-party political system for the delay in solving the vexed Sino-India border issue, Chinese state media on Wednesday said the two sides were "far away" from reaching a "fair" agreement due to "suspicion and distrust", which is also impeding progress in bilateral ties.

Though the 15th round of border talks were concluded last month leaving a "good trend" in the bilateral relations, some contradictions and issues are still severely disturbing the  normal development of the China-India relations, a write up in the People's Daily online said on Wednesday.

"The first issue is the China-India border negotiation. China and India have held 15 meetings of special representatives for the border issue.

"Although the meetings have made many positive achievements, it is still far away from reaching a fair, just and reasonable agreement," the write up in the opinion page said.

The main barrier still comes from the Indian side as Indian media insist that the border line between China and India should be based on the "McMahon Line" left by British colonists, it said also India believes that the border dispute between the two countries covers not only the eastern region of 90,000 square km but also 30,000 sq km in the western region.

"This wrong argument, which totally disregards the history, still has supporters in India," it said. Yet another reason that delaying the agreement was India's multi-party political system as well its society which is extremely complicated, it said.

"Various Indian political parties have different understandings on the China-India border issue, and therefore, it is hard for them to reach an agreement on the issue," it said.

The Daily also referred to India's concerns about China-Pakistan ties.

"There are still misunderstandings about the China- Pakistan relations. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Indian government for the most part believes that  China has adopted an "equal justice" policy in handling India-Pakistan relations, not only attaching importance to developing relations with Pakistan, but also paying attention to the bilateral relations with India," it said.

There were concerns about Gwadar port and Chinese navy coming to India's door step and "inflow of nuclear technologyfrom China to Pakistan", it said.

Referring to India's concerns about Chinese troops in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), it said they were the personnel sent by China to assist Pakistan in the earthquake relief work.

"The China threat theories like these are quite popular in India. Indian public opinion still holds that at present China is looking for a balance in relations between India and Pakistan to seek the best interest in South Asia and that once the India-Pakistan situation has changed, China will give full support to Pakistan and use Pakistan to curb and combat India," it said.

"Through the above contradictions and problems between China and India, the information passed to the people is that China and India do not have enough mutual trust.

"Suspicion and distrust are still the biggest obstacles to developing friendly relations between China and India," it said.

The governments of China and India should both "stand on a higher level, and take a broader perspective, to enhance mutual trust and eliminate the problems and give full  play to the wisdom and talents of the people of China and India, to creatively draw a beautiful blueprint for the final settlement of the China-Indian conflicts and problems," it said.

Also, India is demanding concessions pointing to how China has compromised while solving its border issues with other countries, the daily said.

"India believes it is not a 'benefited side' but is a victim, and therefore, it should not accept the principle of "solving the border issue in a mutual understanding and mutual accommodation way proposed by China," it said.

The article which appeared to be an assessment of the 15th round of border talks referred to sensitivities relating to the Dalai Lama issue.

"Although the Indian government frequently asserts that Tibet is an integral part of Chinese territory, it holds a different attitude toward the Dalai Lama," it said.

It is just because of the Indian government's ambiguous attitude that the exiled Dalai clique carried out waves of activities such as a rally against the Chinese government and incited some domestic reactionary organization to conduct activities of undermining the social stability of Tibet," it said.