An op-ed in the Global Times, a leading Chinese daily, affiliated with the flagship People’s Daily , has warned India not to leverage the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader in exile, as a bargaining chip to shape ties with China.
The daily cited India’s decision to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh next month, despite China’s objections to the visit, as a step that “will inevitably trigger confrontation, undermine the stability of the region and sour Sino-Indian relations”.
Last week, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang had asserted that, “The Indian side knows very well the seriousness of the Dalai issue and the sensitiveness of the boundary question.”
The Global Times , quoting Indian media reports cited unnamed officials in India as saying that the Dalai Lama was visiting Arunachal Pradesh — the State over which India and China have a border dispute — in his capacity as “Tibetan spiritual leader”, and were surprised by Beijing’s new-found “sensitivities” as Tibetan leader had undertaken numerous such visits earlier. In its response the daily said: “These Indian officials apparently didn’t realise, or deliberately ignored, the severe consequences the Dalai Lama’s trip would bring.”
‘Dalai card ineffective’
The op-ed highlighted that an “increasing number of Western leaders have shut the door on the Dalai Lama in recent years after realising the Dalai card is ineffective”.
“In the wake of a string of counter-measures by China, Mongolia’s government pledged to extend no more invitations to the Dalai Lama in late December. Against such a backdrop and at a time when a China-India strategic dialogue was just held to improve bilateral relations, the decision to receive the Dalai Lama in the disputed region is unwise. Leveraging the Dalai Lama issue to undermine Beijing’s core interests risks dragging the two countries into a state of hostility,” the article said.
