New Delhi: The state-run Chinese media continues to fuel the Doklam fire and has now advised Beijing to “rethink” its stance on Sikkim.
An editorial in Global Times says “voices in Chinese society supporting Sikkim’s independence… will spread and fuel pro-independence appeals in Sikkim”.
China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Doklam area in Sikkim sector near the Bhutan trijunction for the past 20 days after a Chinese army’s construction party came to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Doklam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.
The Global Times article also accuses India of “control and oppression over Bhutan”. “Bhutan has not established diplomatic ties with its neighbor China or any other permanent member of the UN Security Council…. Through unequal treaties, India has severely jeopardised Bhutan’s diplomatic sovereignty and controls its national defense,” it claimed.
The standoff between the Indian and Chinese troops had started after Bhutan, which has close diplomatic and military ties with India, protested to Beijing about the People’s Liberation Army troops building the road in the strategic location close to the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ tri-junction. Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China.
The Global Times article alleged that “the annexation of Sikkim is like a nightmare haunting Bhutan”.
Sikkim became a part of India in May 1976 and is the only Indian state which has a demarcated border with China. The lines are based on a treaty signed with the Chinese in 1898.
The state-run media, however, has asked the country’s leadership to ignore the Chinese recognition of Sikkim as an Indian state and “readjust its stance on the matter”.
In further provocation, it also accused India of “playing the Dalai Lama” card in the past, but said it will now exert no “additional effect” on the Tibet issue as India has “overplayed” the card. Calling the India-China relationship as “complicated”, it said Beijing is “more powerful yet unwilling to face a confrontation with New Delhi”.
India has called for a diplomatic solution to the standoff and maintained that Chinese soldiers must leave the Bhutanese territory to reduce tension in the area. “I think the issue can be resolved at the diplomatic level. The Chinese troops should stay where they were earlier. China is approaching towards Bhutanese territory. We want them not to come forward,” Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said on Wednesday.
“This is our security concern and this is our stand. Bhutan’s King had yesterday given a statement that Chinese (troops) are entering into its territory. This tension can be resolved at the diplomatic level. Across the table we can solve all the problems,” Bhamre said.
Source: News18