The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not formally respond to this week’s Japan-India summit, but as is so often the case, Beijing leveraged the sharp-tongued CPC-run Global Times newspaper to speak on its behalf.
And if Monday’s editorial is anything to go by, the Chinese government isn’t very concerned about closer economic and security ties between its two rivals.
First, China feels it has real leverage over India due to New Delhi hosting two major international summits, the China-initiated Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the G20. “Without China’s support, none of them will be held successfully,” warned Global Times.
Secondly, the Chinese genuinely doubt that the interests of wealthy G7 countries like Japan and the United States will converge sufficiently with those of poorer developing states like India to present a meaningful threat to China. “On major international issues, developing countries have their own thinking which clearly differs from that of the Western world,” the newspaper said.
