Beijing looks forward to mutually beneficial relationship with India

In a bilateral meeting –on the sidelines of the BRICS summit –between China’s president Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former told the Indian delegation that Beijing looks forward to a relationship of “mutual benefit,” which is “sound and stable.” This was told by a senior public diplomacy advocate, Prof Ni Shixiong, here in the city at a talk in Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS). He is privy to some of the exchanges that were undertaken during the meeting.

Considered close to the power centre at Zhongnanhai headquarters of the Chinese leadership, Prof Shixong, a veteran international affairs expert, will soon have the distinction of becoming the head of a think tank in Shanghai, named after him. This is a rare honour that is being bestowed upon him obviously at the behest of the powers-that-be.

Prof Shixong appeared to be visiting India in connection with the BRICS summit, held at Goa a fortnight ago, to cool the slightly high temperature being felt in the bilateral relation following China’s two ‘nos.’ One, the nation have stalled the membership of India to the NSG and, two, it has also blocked the listing of the terrorist chief of the group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, by the United Nations.

Both are very important issues for India and have found resonance in Washington. New Delhi had been pushing its case for the NSG membership for long as it thinks it would enhance the country’s standing in the world as bona fide nuclear power.

On Maulana Masood Azhar, India has an old case when he had to be exchanged on a swap for the passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814. Since then, Azhar has become a bugbear for the Indian security agencies especially since he has been sending his terrorist cadres across the Line of Control (LOC) to create mayhem.

Holding forth on these issues, Prof Shixiong also reminded a select audience at the ICS that in 1988, when Rajiv Gandhi had visited Beijing, during an introductory session with then Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, the latter had told the late prime minister, that is the two nartions partner each other, they would become the “centre of Asia.”

The professor, who had accompanied the Xi Jinping during his last September visit to the USA, talked about how the Chinese president had told the US President Barack Obama a “12 character” (Chinese language do not have alphabets but have charaters) main point for Sino-US relationship. This stated that Beijing looked forward to “no clashes (with the USA),” “no confrontation,” “mutual respect,” and “win-win cooperation.”

On a lighter vein, the veteran academic and advocate of the Chinese cause recounted that he was later told by Xi that Obama had quietly listened to this ‘12 character’ enunciation quietly, till the last point of ‘win-win cooperation’, when he “nodded his head.”