Jaishankar’s remarks over China’s Zangnan disregard common sense, vicious attempt to win votes: Analysts

BEIJING, March 25 (APP):: The claims made by India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over the Chinese territory of Zangnan were slammed by Chinese analysts as a brutal disregard of historic common sense, and the recent acts and remarks by the Indian government are viewed as merely a vicious attempt to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party to win reelection, by establishing a hawkish image to court domestic nationalist voters.
Responding to a question after delivering a lecture at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) of National University in Singapore on Saturday, Jaishankar called China’s claims on the so-called Arunachal Pradesh “ludicrous” while asserting that the region is “a natural part of India.”
The Saturday’s event marked Jaishankar’s first public comment on the issue after the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese Ministry of National Defense came out in opposition to Indian leaders’ visit to the Zangnan region earlier in March.
It is a show of total disregard of the most basic historic common sense and a move to use territorial issue to court domestic voters, Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow with the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times, refuting Jaishankar’s provocations.
The Modi administration has always tried to use the issue of Zangnan to bargain with China. “Militarily, China needs to keep on high-alert and be prepared for any provocation and present effective determination. Only by doing so can we make sure India will not be arrogant enough to do anything unwise,” Hu noted.
The action by the US stimulates and encourages India’s anti-China behavior, making the China-India border issue more complex and detrimental to the peaceful resolution of border disputes between the two countries, Hu remarked.
Speaking at the same event on Saturday, Jaishankar, while stressing the need for peace and tranquility between borders, smearing that it was China that disrupted the “equilibrium” at the border with the 2020 border standoff.
Slamming such remarks, Hu said that it was a deliberate attempt by the Indian government to confuse public opinion, garner sympathy and attention both domestically and internationally, while seizing the opportunity to suppress China and enhance India’s international influence.