News Analysis India

Tag: China

  • Covid pandemic, Ukraine war behind price rise: Rajnath

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the coronavirus pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war have caused price rise and the government has taken several steps to tackle the challenge.

    Even developed countries like the USA and China are not untouched by inflation, he said according to a press release. 

    “Inflation has increased in the country due to coronavirus and the Ukraine crisis,” he said addressing a programme organised by the Lucknow Intellectual Foundation Addressing a Financial Markets Workshop organised by the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Rajnath Singh said the economy has been affected due to COVID-19, prices have increased slightly and steps have been taken to deal with the challenges.

    The Reserve Bank has also taken steps to reduce inflation, whose results will be out soon, he said. “Many agency surveys are showing that India is the fastest growing economy. Our government has signed a major free trade agreement with Australia,” he said.

    According to the press release, Rajnath also claimed that efforts made by the BJP government to check the coronavirus crisis have been appreciated by the World Health Organization.

    Ever since the Modi government was formed in 2014, India’s credibility on the world stage has increased and now the whole world listens carefully to what India says, he said, adding that all this has happened because of the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Singh said India is currently the sixth largest economy in the world and the vision is to be named among the top three economies in the world in coming 10 years.

    Singh, who took part in a number of programmes, discussed development projects in Lucknow and said six flyovers have been built here and five new ones have been approved. He said officials have been asked to complete the work at the earliest.

    Many prominent leaders, including former UP deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, were present on this occasion. Padma Shri recipient litterateur Vidya Bindu Singh requested Rajnath to rename Lucknow as Laxman Puri.

  • Army chief visits forward areas in eastern Ladakh

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande visited some of the most difficult and inhospitable forward locations in eastern Ladakh and reviewed India’s overall military preparedness during his three-day tour of the region amid the lingering border row with China, officials said on Saturday.

    They said the Chief of Army Staff interacted with the troops in multiple locations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the high-altitude region and took stock of the ground situation.

    Gen Pande concluded his three-day visit to Ladakh on Saturday.

    The Army chief, accompanied by senior commanders, visited some of the most difficult and inhospitable forward locations in eastern Ladakh to have first-hand knowledge about the prevailing situation, the officials said.

    “General Manoj Pande #COAS visited forward areas in #Ladakh to review the operational preparedness. #COAS interacted with the troops & complimented them for their steadfastness & high morale,” the Army tweeted.

    On Thursday, senior commanders briefed Gen Pande at the Fire and Fury Corps headquarters in Leh about the overall security situation in eastern Ladakh. The Fire and Fury Corps is responsible for guarding the LAC with China in the Ladakh region.

    Gen Pande’s visit to Ladakh came days after he said China’s intention has been to keep “alive” the overall boundary question with India though it remains the “basic” issue between the two countries.

    While referring to the eastern Ladakh border row, the Army chief had said the Indian Army’s aim is to re-establish the “trust and tranquillity” between the two sides but asserted that “it cannot be a one-way affair”. He also asserted that the Indian Army’s aim was to restore the status quo ante prior to April 2020 in eastern Ladakh.

    The eastern Ladakh faceoff began on May 4-5 in 2022. India has been insisting on the restoration of the status quo ante prior to the standoff. India and China have held 15 rounds of military talks so far to resolve the eastern Ladakh row.

    As a result of the talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.

    India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the LAC were key for the overall development of the bilateral ties. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector.

  • Tibet plays important role in complex India-China ties: Ex-diplomat Nirupama Rao

    By Express News Service

    BENGALURU: India’s former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao in an interaction on her book ‘The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet, China, 1949-1962’ spoke about the Indo-China relations then and now and the influence of the 13-year period that preceded the Indo-China war in 1962 on the relations between the two neighbours with Tibet at the centre.

    “From the start, the India-China relationship was in fact a three-body problem, with Tibet at the geographical and diplomatic centre of the nascent relationship,” said Rao. The event was organised by the Synergia Foundation – a city-based strategy think tank.

    She said that following the tragic events in the Galwan Valley in 2020, the focus is back on Indo-China relations. “We need a wide-angled perspective to recall the early history of this relationship. Both India and China were very young and in the process of national consolidation and influencing our roles on the world stage. What happened in those years has quite an influence on Indo-China relations even today,” said Rao.

    She added, “An industry has grown abouat blaming Jawaharlal Nehru for everything that happened during that period. He had his flaws, but his follies cannot be textbook gospel. His decisions were made in real time. India was a young country and Nehru’s contribution in nation building cannot be ignored. He saw the reality of the coming of the Communists and was subconsciously worried about China’s expansionism. He was concerned about safeguarding our borders. Nehru was the first person to own his failure in the China policy, which had deep linkages with the Tibetan issue. He had granted His Holiness the Dalai Lama asylum in India and Tibetans recognised him as Dharmaraja, but he focused more on building relationships with China and felt that Tibet was a lost cause,” said the former diplomat. She added that there were weaknesses, mistakes but we need to understand the circumstances in which decisions were made and how they were made in real time.

    Rao said India’s ties with Tibet are very complex and are not only dictated by geography but by trade, pilgrimage and cultural osmosis. The presence of the Dalai Lama and his whole succession question continues to be strongly opposed by China. She spoke at length about the people in the Himalayan region on either side of the border and about the strong cultural and trade linkages. 

    She said that she has been asked why a book like this is necessary at this point in time because this subject has been researched and written extensively for many years. “We fought the 1962 war, the 60th anniversary of which is coming up. There’s no end to analysis of events and people involved in the era. My interpretation of that period is that of a diplomat practitioner. I studied the subject when I was in the Indian Foreign Service and I dealt with the bilateral relationships between India and China much before I was posted as Ambassador to Beijing,” she said. “My aim was to provide a rational understanding of the complex relationships between India and China,” said the former diplomat.

  • China’s intent has been to keep boundary issue ‘alive’: Army Chief Gen Pande

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The basic issue with China remains the resolution of the boundary question but Beijing’s intent has been to keep it “alive”, Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande said on Monday, asserting that Indian troops are adequately deployed to deal with any situation along the frontier.

    Gen Pande said the Army’s aim is to restore the status quo ante prior to April 2020 and that guidance has been given to the troops deployed along the border to remain firm and resolute in their tasks.

    The Army chief told a group of journalists that Indian troops continue to hold “important positions” along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and that the Army has a “robust posture” to confront any situation.

    “The basic issue remains the resolution of the border. What we see is that China’s intent has been to keep the boundary issue alive,” he said.

    “What we need as a country is a ‘whole of nation’ approach and in the military domain, this is to prevent and counter any attempt to alter the status quo at the LAC,” he added.

    Gen Pande, who took the reins of the Army over a week ago, said the diplomatic and military talks between the two sides resulted in the disengagement of troops on the north and south banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra and Patrolling Point 14 in Galwan, and added, “We hope to find resolution through dialogue in remaining areas.” “Our aim is to restore status quo ante prior to April 2020,” he said.

    The eastern Ladakh faceoff began on May 4-5 in 2020. India has been insisting on the restoration of the status quo ante prior to the standoff.

    The aim is to establish trust and tranquillity on both sides but it cannot be a “one-way affair”, he said.

    “Our troops continue to hold important positions along the LAC. As far as the situation is concerned, guidance given to the troops is to remain firm and resolute in the task they are undertaking and prevent attempts to change the status quo,” he said.

  • Relief for Indian medical students as China says it’s ready to allow some of them to return

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: In a major relief for Indian medical students keen to return to China to continue their studies, Beijing on Friday announced plans to permit the return of “some” Indian students who were stranded in India for over two years because of visa and flight restrictions imposed due to Covid-19 pandemic.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing in Beijing that “China attaches high importance to Indian students’ concerns about returning to China for studies.”

    “We have shared with the Indian sides the procedures and experience of other countries’ students returning to China. The work for Indian students’ return has already started. All that remains to be done is for the Indian side to provide the list of students who need to come back to China,” he said.

    “We understand that many Indian students are studying in China. India may need some time to collect the names,” Zhao said.

    Over 22,000 Indian students, mostly studying medicine in Chinese colleges, have been stuck in India for two years after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in China in December 2019.

    These students couldn’t return to Beijing due to the travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese government as it cancelled visas and flights from India in its bid to arrest the spread of the pandemic.

    The medical students were thus forced to take online classes. But they were desperate to go back because they had to take practical lessons, a must for getting a medical degree. Worried about their careers, the students ran a social media campaign, “Take us back to China.”

    “China is ready to receive some Indian students under the current complicated severe epidemic situation. In handling international students returning to China for studies, we need to consider the international epidemic situation, the evolving circumstances, and their majors. This principle applies equally to all foreign students,” Zhao added.

    External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar held a meeting with the State Councillor and Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Yi, on March 25 and discussed the “future of young people.”

    China has been permitting students from some friendly countries like Pakistan, Thailand, Solomon Islands, and recently Sri Lanka to return but remained silent about allowing Indian students and hundreds of family members of Indians working in China to travel back.

    In a statement, the Indian embassy in Beijing said, “The Chinese side has expressed its willingness to consider facilitating the return of Indian students to China on a need-assessed basis. To facilitate this (return), the Indian Embassy intends to prepare a list of such students which will be shared with the Chinese side for their consideration. Therefore, Indian students are requested to provide the necessary information by filling up the Google Form at this link (https://forms.gle/MJmgByc7BrJj9MPv7), latest by May 8.”

    Once the collated information is shared with the Chinese, they would consult relevant Chinese departments to verify the list and indicate whether the identified students can travel to China to complete the course, the statement said. This coordination process would be carried out in a time-bound manner, the embassy added.

  • Lavrov visit: Oil payment system may figure in talks

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to visit India this week amid Russia’s isolation by the West over the ongoing war against Ukraine.  The focus of the visit is expected to be discussions on a payment system for India’s procurement of oil and military hardware from Russia. 

    Lavrov’s visit comes days after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s unscheduled visit to New Delhi. It is learnt that Lavrov will arrive here after concluding a two-day visit to China. It would be the highest-level visit from Russia to India after Moscow launched its military offensive against Ukraine on February 24. There has been no official word on the visit by either side.

    India is likely to import nearly 10 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia at a discount of $20 per barrel. The state-run oil companies have committed to buy 6 million tonnes while private firms are negotiating for importing 4 million tonnes. 

    It is understood that India is working on a rupee-rouble exchange, which would allow it and Russia to carry out financial operations by bypassing the US dollar. The Centre is working on a proposal to permit five nationalised Indian banks to engage in the rouble trade.

    “It may be a diplomatic tight-rope for India as it has favourable relations with US too, but with the increase in crude price globally this is a viable option for India as it does not want to burden the consumers with a steep hike in the cost of fuel,” say sources.

    The Ministry of External Affairs, on the issue of India importing oil from Russia, had said that many European nations were still buying oil from Russia, so India wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary.

  • Eastern Ladakh situation a work in progress: Jaishankar after talks with Wang Yi

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The current situation between India and China on the eastern Ladakh issue is “a work in progress” but moving at a slower place than desirable, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday after talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

    He asserted that the restoration of normal ties will require normalcy in border areas.

    Addressing a press conference after talks with Wang, Jaishankar noted that 15 rounds of talks between senior military commanders have taken place over the eastern Ladakh standoff and pointed out that progress has been achieved on several friction points from the disengagement perspective.

    “This needs to be taken forward since completion of disengagement is necessary for discussions on de-escalation to take place. I would describe our current situation as a work in progress, obviously at a slower place than desirable, and my discussions with Foreign Minister Wang were aimed at expediting that process,” the external affairs minister said.

    The impact of border tensions on the overall ties has been visible in the last two years, he said. “This is only natural since peace and tranquillity in the border areas have been the foundation of stable and cooperative ties,” Jaishankar said.

    He said his nearly three-hour talks with Wang addressed a broad and substantive agenda in an open and candid manner.

    Jaishankar said he discussed with Wang bilateral relations that have been disturbed due to Chinese actions since April 2020. “I was honest in conveying our sentiment on this issue during talks with Wang Yi,” Jaishankar said while referring to the eastern Ladakh standoff.

    Frictions and tensions arising from China’s deployments since April 2020 cannot be reconciled with a normal relationship between two neighbours, he asserted.

    Asked whether terrorism emanating from Pakistan figured in the talks, Jaishankar said the issue came up. Wang, who holds the rank of state councillor, arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening from Kabul.

  • India has taken up issue of return of Indian students with China: Government

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said it has been taking up with the Chinese authorities the issue of the return of Indian students to China to resume their studies.

    Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, said a large number of Indian students had come back to India when all universities in China had closed down following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    He said China had restricted travel by suspending visa and residence permits from March 27, 2020, in view of the pandemic.

    “As per information available, approximately 20,000 Indian students were enrolled in various courses including clinical medicine courses in different Chinese universities at that time,” he said.

    “A large number of them returned to India when all universities in China had closed down,” he added.

    Muraleedharan said the universities in China have not reopened fully as on date. “The government has been taking up the matter of the return of Indian students with the Chinese authorities both in New Delhi and through our Embassy in China. Regular updates have been given in this regard by the Embassy to the Indian students,” Muraleedharan said.

    He said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had taken up the matter with the National Medical Commission and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to explore options to address the concerns of the affected students.

    The minister said the commission has issued a circular on March 4 stating that in view of a large number of Indian medical students in foreign institutions who have not been able to complete internships, it has decided to accept applications from such foreign medical graduates to complete the remaining part of an internship in India.

    Muraleedharan said the Chinese government has advised Chinese universities to maintain contact with foreign students and continue classes online.

    To a separate question, he said the MEA has received and addressed” a total of 4957 NRI marital complaints from Indian brides and grooms over the last five years.

    The minister said a total amount of Rs 64 lakhs has been spent for providing legal and financial assistance to Indian women deserted by their overseas Indian/foreign husbands under the Indian Community Welfare Fund from 2017 to 2021.

    Muraleedharan said 231 passports of the NRIs, implicated in the disputes, have been revoked/cancelled during the last five years.

  • No official word yet on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s possible visit to India

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Deliberations between India and China over a possible visit here by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have gone down to the wire with neither side providing any clarity over it.

    Wang began a two-day trip to Pakistan on Tuesday primarily to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a special guest.

    Nepal has already announced that he will visit Kathmandu from March 25 to 27. It was China that sent a proposal to India for a visit to New Delhi by Wang as part of his tour of the region, people familiar with the development had said last week.

    It is learnt that the two sides were looking at Wang’s visit to India during the window between his trip to Pakistan and Nepal and that it could take place on Thursday or Friday.

    There is no official comment or clarity on Wang’s proposed visit to India either by New Delhi or by Beijing yet.

    However, it was very clear that Wang’s comments on Kashmir at the OIC opening ceremony in Islamabad on Tuesday have not gone down well in New Delhi with it strongly rejecting the remarks.

    In its reaction, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday that other countries, including China, have no locus standi to comment on India’s internal matters and that they should note that India refrains from public judgement of their internal issues.

    If the visit takes place notwithstanding India’s strong reaction to Wang’s remarks, then it will be the first trip by a senior Chinese leader to India after the eastern Ladakh military standoff began in May 2020.

    In reflection of India’s consistent position on ties with China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday apprised his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison about the situation in eastern Ladakh and emphasised that peace and tranquillity in the region is an essential prerequisite for normalisation of India’s ties with China.

    Modi made the comments at a virtual summit with the Australian prime minister.

    At the 14th India-Japan summit on Saturday, New Delhi conveyed to Tokyo the same line that its ties with Beijing cannot be business as usual until peace is restored in the eastern Ladakh region.

    India and China have held a series of diplomatic and military talks in the last one-and-half years to resolve the eastern Ladakh row.

    External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Wang held several rounds of talks in Moscow and Dushanbe to defuse tensions in eastern Ladakh during the period.

    In September 2020, Jaishankar and Wang held extensive talks in Moscow on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) during which they reached a five-point agreement to resolve the eastern Ladakh border row.

    The pact included measures like quick disengagement of troops, avoiding action that could escalate tensions, adherence to all agreements and protocols on border management and steps to restore peace along the LAC.

    The two foreign ministers had held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of another SCO meeting in Tajik capital city Dushanbe in July last year with a focus on the border row.

    They again met in Dushanbe in September. India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was key for the overall development of the bilateral ties.

    Earlier this month, Wang said some forces have always sought to stoke tensions between China and India, in an apparent reference to the US.

    Wang’s proposed visit, if it takes place, is expected to provide an opportunity for the two sides to exchange views on the crisis in Ukraine as well.

    On March 11, India and China held the 15th round of high-level military dialogue to resolve the pending issues in the eastern Ladakh region.

    The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.

    Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

    As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year in the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.

    Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector.

  • Covid surge slows down flight of ‘The Batman’ in China

    By IANS

    MUMBAI: The current Covid-19 surge in China has seriously affected the mainland China box office collections of the recently released Robert Pattinson-starrer ‘The Batman’. Of late, the trend has been the same for films of all origins at China’s box office, reports ‘Variety’.As per ‘Variety’, by 3:30 p.m. on its first full day, the film had earned a lowly RMB12.1 million, or $1.90 million at prevailing currency rates, according to provisional data from ticketing agency Maoyan. Including previews from Thursday, “The Batman” had a total by early afternoon of RMB13.7 million, or $2.15 million.However, there seems to be some respite for the Warner Bros. noir as it secured top position at the mainland China box office chart with a 70% market share, more than five times greater than second placed ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin II’.Previous Batman films have scored reasonably strongly in China: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ raked in $53 million in 2012; ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ earned $97 million in 2016; and ‘Justice League’ made $106 million in 2017 when China became the first country to premiere the film.Since 2020, Chinese audiences have been offered fewer Hollywood films than in previous years, a situation created by a smaller flow of U.S. commercial cinema during 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and by Chinese government action to crimp imports of American films in 2021.As per ‘Variety’, Disney and Sony have not been able to get import approval for five of their Marvel films and there has not been a U.S. superhero movie released in China for over a year. Instead, Chinese audiences have been treated to a succession of patriotic locally-made blockbusters that have played especially well at holiday peaks.