Chinese media bemoans boycott threat to its goods over support to Pak terrorists
14 Oct 2016
China's state-run media cannot digest Indian politicians calling for a boycott of Chinese goods even as Beijing continues to block sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azhar and keeps obdurately supporting Islamabad despite the Uri terror attack.
Using trade to highlight political issues will only damage bilateral ties, said the Chinese state media amidst fears that exports to India could suffer if Beijing continues its support to Pakistan's state-sponsored terrorism.
India should expand its industrial infrastructure and find ways of filling the widening gap in its bilateral trade with China rather than threatening to boycott goods from China, Chinese state media said on Friday.
''India must upgrade its industrial structure in order to tackle trade imbalance with China,'' the tabloid Global Times said adding that India should focus on expanding and improving industrial infrastructure and try to fill up the wide trade imbalance between the two countries, rather than adopting protectionism against Chinese goods.
''...country is trying to reduce its trade deficit with China through trade protectionism. Indian local media reports said in March that there had been 322 anti-dumping cases in India so far, of which 177 cases involved Chinese products. Besides, a social media campaign urging people to refrain from buying China-made products has recently been building in India. Such moves will not help contribute to reducing India's trade deficit, but could damage bilateral ties instead'', the article stated.
"Chinese products are often the victim when regional situations get tense", the paper says as it accuses Indian politicians of "exaggerating". The paper also tries to prove that Indians' boycott call "has not achieved success" and it pontificates about why enhancing economic ties with Beijing will be very beneficial - for China.
"For the dragon and elephant, enhancing economic ties would be a preferable way to promote the comprehensive bilateral relationship. The more economic cooperation exists, the more opportunities there will be for Chinese products to enter the Indian market," the state-Global Times wrote ahead of Xi Jinping's visit to India for a crucial BRICS summit. Far from "Indian media's hysteric reports of a 'doomsday' for Chinese products", their sales have actually "hit a new record", it added.
"Sales figures for Chinese products on the top three Indian online retailers in the first week of October hit a new record. Amazingly, the Chinese mobile phone company Xiaomi sold half a million phones in just three days on the Flipkart, Amazon India, Snapdeal and Tata CLiQ platforms," says the article in Global Times.
Chinese products are the victim of politics "and this phenomenon has been existing for quite a few years," it adds.
"The first happened in April. It was caused by dissatisfaction over China's stand on the issue of Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed active in Kashmir, who is accused of committing terrorist acts in India. The second was in July and because of China's lack of support for India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group" it said.
The paper, however, is silent on why Beijing keeps blocking sanctions against Azhar or supporting Islamabad even in the face of its grave provocations.
