West hyping India-China rivalry, says Chinese media

Ahead of President Pranab Mukherjee’s talks with the Chinese leaders, the state media on Wednesday criticised the western media for attempting to drive a “wedge” between the two Asian giants by “hyping up” competition between them over Iran’s Chabahar port.

The visit of the Indian President, which follows Chinese President Xi Jinping’s India trip two years ago, is set to open a new chapter in the development of bilateral relations and yield meaningful results for regional peace and stability, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Mukherjee arrived here on Wednesday from Guangzhou after addressing a India-China Business Forum in which top Chinese and Indian businessmen took part. He is due to have talks with Xi and other Chinese leaders here on Thursday.

“But some Western media have attempted to drive a wedge into China-India relations by hyping up competition between the two Asian giants,” it said, specially highlighting Chabahar port which will be developed by India to open transit routes from Iran to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.

“One of the latest targets of their (western media) smear campaign is a New Delhi-Tehran deal on developing Iran’s southern port of Chabahar. The seaport is about 100 km from Pakistan’s Gwadar seaport, which is co-developed by China. Those media claim the Elephant-Dragon rivalry is unavoidable,” the commentary said.

“Such hype is both untrue and harmful. China and India do have differences, but those differences are outnumbered and dwarfed by their consensuses and aspiration for win-win cooperation,” it said.

The two countries have established a number of boundary- related mechanisms, including the Special Representatives’ Meeting on China-India Boundary Question, whose 19th round was held in Beijing last month, it said.