An editorial that ran Tuesday in China’s Global Times newspaper did not mince words on the topic of Indian people.
“Some Indians are too self-centered and self-righteous,” one line read.
“India is spoiled. Although the South Asian country’s GDP accounts for only 20 percent of that of China, it is still a golden boy in the eyes of the West, having a competitive edge and more potential compared to China. The international ‘adulation’ of India makes the country a bit smug in international affairs,” the diatribe said.
“Throwing a tantrum won’t be an option for New Delhi,” followed soon after.
And the kicker: “India’s nationalists should learn how to behave themselves. Now that they wish their country could be a major power, they should know how major powers play their games.”
These fighting words kicked off a minor competition, seemingly over which country was being more self-righteous. The backdrop was China’s refusal to allow India to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, or the NSG, which aims to limit nuclear proliferation. The NSG was formed in 1975 after India tested a nuclear weapon, and India still hasn’t signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Nor has Pakistan.
China is the only member of the NSG that objects to India’s inclusion. President Obama has been vocal in his support, as have European leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed unconditional support to New Delhi.
Indian “news” content often has a remarkably apparent editorial spin, and articles responding to the Global Times editorial barely paid attention to any supposed wall between objectivity and opinion.
“The entire editorial heaps insults on Indians who according to the Chinese paper don’t understand nationalism, have no knowledge of morals, cravenly follow the west and are spoiled,” wrote Shailaja Neelakantani in the Times of India’s news section. “It appears the Chinese newspaper’s editorial wants to give Indians a lesson in nationalism and patriotism.”
Neelakantani then says that just as India has been shut out of the NSG, China has been shut out of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a group similar to the NSG but whose membership is informal and voluntary as opposed to being decided by a plenary council. “The editorial — which makes no mention of China’s nuclear proliferation for which it has been shut out of the MTCR — seeks to put China on a (dubious) moral high ground,” she writes.
In another Times of India news article, Indrani Bagchi wrote, “China has been a major proliferator of nuclear and missile technology to North Korea and Pakistan, so its insistence on NPT as a cornerstone of the non-proliferation regime is ironic.”
China’s ability to block India’s membership in the NSG does have major and immediate real-world consequences. Without NSG membership, India has stated, it will not be able to officially join the Paris agreement on climate change reached in December. Without India’s accession to the agreement, chances of it coming to fruition greatly diminish, as the agreement comes into force only once countries representing 55 percent of global carbon emissions join. India is one of the world’s largest emitters.
A statement released by the Indian government after China’s strong-arm move at the NSG meeting in Seoul said, “An early positive decision by the NSG would have allowed us to move forward on the Paris Agreement.”
The Global Times was apparently provoked by articles like Bagchi’s, as well as protests like the one pictured above, in which Hindu nationalists put their shoes on a picture of the Chinese president in a mark of disrespect.
“Indian public opinion has reacted quite strongly. A few Indian media outlets started to vilify China’s position, and some Indians even called for a boycott of Chinese-made products and a withdrawal from the BRICS group,” the editorial says, in a reference to a loose grouping of emerging economies that includes India and China. “Some Indians’ accusations do not make any sense. China’s action is based on international norms, but India’s reaction seems to indicate that their national interests can override principles recognized by the world.”
