(TibetanReview.net, Aug14’22) – China has on Aug 13 expressed hope that India will reiterate support for its “One China” policy without addressing the issues which had made it stop doing so over ten years ago. While this policy is generally understood to refer to Taiwan and China being one country as defined by Beijing, it has also been used to oppose the independence movements in occupied territories of Tibet and East Turkestan (Xinjiang) as well.
The hope was expressed by China’s Ambassador Sun Weidong at a media roundtable with a small group of journalists a day after India evaded any mention of the “one-China” policy while opposing unilateral actions to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait following tensions triggered by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-governed island of Taiwan.
Sun reiterated China’s position that it will not renounce the use of force to reunite Taiwan with China and called for understanding of his country’s efforts to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. In this regard, he called on India to reiterate the “one-China” policy, reported the hindustantimes.com Aug 13.
“The one-China principle is the political basis of China-India relations…My understanding is that India’s one-China policy has not changed. We hope that once again India could reiterate the one-China policy,” he has said.
While India still indeed follows the one-China policy of Beijing, and has only unofficial ties with Taiwan, it stopped expressing explicit support for it in bilateral documents over a decade ago, following differences with Beijing over issues related to Jammu and Kashmir, on which it supports Pakistan, and Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims is part of south Tibet.
On China’s recent blocking of an India-US bids to blacklist Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Abdul Rahman Makki and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Abdul Rauf Azhar at the UN Security Council, Sun has said China participates in the work of the UN’s 1267 sanctions committee in a “constructive and responsible manner and in strict accordance with the rules and procedures”.
Under the committee’s rules, member states have the right to place a “technical hold” on terrorist listing applications, he has noted. The Chinese side “needs more time to evaluate the relevant listing applications”, and this was done in line with the relevant rules and procedures, he has said, although it was pointed out that China was the only UNSC veto-power member doing so.