China is trying to bring the bilateral relationship back on track by blaming recent Sino-Indian tensions on the Dalai Lama and the media.
A day after Beijing said the Tibetan spiritual leader was trying to damage bilateral ties, the People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, published an editorial praising the meeting between Premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Thailand.
This is the same newspaper that had shocked New Delhi last month with an aggressive editorial warning India that its ‘hegemony’, ‘recklessness’ and ‘arrogance’ is harming relations with China and Pakistan.
The latest editorial attempts to soothe the strains with a headline about the two nations forging common prosperity and development. “The consensus between Premier Wen and Indian PM Singh is just like a gentle breeze, clearing up all the suspicion and misunderstanding that have hindered bilateral relations over the past decades,’’ it states.
“But some pending issues and unnecessary misunderstanding have plagued bilateral ties,’’ it added, pointing out that media in both nations Media need to play a constructive role creating a healthy environment to facilitate public opinion. The rest of the editorial refers to cooperation in trade, the global financial crisis, military exchanges, climate change and anti-terrorism.