China got upset recently with India, or with Indian media, for “failing to uphold China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The lament doesn’t pertain to ongoing disputes over the border between China and India or between China and an ally of India like Bhutan, whose “sovereignty and territorial integrity” China has violated by establishing Chinese villages in Bhutanese territory. Nor is China accusing India or Indian media of invading any area indisputably at least for now a part of the country we call China.
These are the kinds of things that might first come to mind when one country accuses another of failing to respect the accuser’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Sovereign China
But the Chinese government has a very expansive notion of its sovereignty and territorial integrity and what constitutes noninterference with China. To satisfy the criteria, governments and their representatives must do everything China tells them to do and never criticize China. If the rest of the globe were to obey China in everything always, there’d be no problem.
One of the things China tells everybody to do is respect its “one China” policy according to which everyone must speak and act as if Taiwan, an independent country, were “really” a part of mainland China. China does not wany anybody in other lands to ever give any representative of Taiwan the time of day.
“China wants the media in India to follow its so-called One China policy after the television channel NewsX aired on Feb 29 an interview with Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu,” reports Tibetan Review (“China urges Indian media to uphold One China policy…,” March 4, 2024):
In a statement issued Mar 1, the Chinese embassy in India claimed the interview provided “a platform for advocating Taiwan independence and disseminating false information,” which it deemed a serious violation of the One-China principle….
However, India has for years refrained from including the One-China nomenclature in joint statements after meetings with leaders of China due to the latter’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh and pro-Pakistan position it has adopted on the Kashmir issue. China has also repeatedly angered India by preventing the UN from sanctioning terrorists who had attacked it and were being protected by Pakistan….
Responding strongly to the Chinese statement, the Taiwan Foreign Office has said, “Neither India nor Taiwan is part of the PRC and we’re not its puppets.
“We’re both democracies with free and vibrant presses that can’t be dictated to. Beijing should worry about its own economic slump, not bullying its neighbours.”
Taiwan’s response is fine. But what are we to make of Tibetan Review’s statement that India has been refraining “from including the One-China nomenclature in joint statements” because of its objections to Chinese policies toward India?
The implication seems to be that if India could resolve these differences, the Indian government would have no problem fully adhering to the pretense that Taiwan is “really” part of the PRC. This dismaying prospect would be implausible were it not for the statements and conduct of so many country governments at least since the 1970s.
Also see:
Tibetan Review: “India and China hold their 21st border commander-level talks after 2020 clashes…”
StopTheChinazis.org: “Japan to the Rescue in the South China Sea?”
StopTheChinazis.org: Video: “Why Should Americans Defend Taiwan?”
