The Pulse

New Delhi Will Recognize ‘One China’ When Beijing Recognizes ‘One India’

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The Pulse

New Delhi Will Recognize ‘One China’ When Beijing Recognizes ‘One India’

New Delhi wants concessions from Beijing before it will once again publicly support the “One China” principle.

New Delhi Will Recognize ‘One China’ When Beijing Recognizes ‘One India’
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Given Chinese foreign minster Wang Yi’s largely effusive experience in New Delhi earlier this summer, relations between Beijing and New Delhi appeared to sailing smoothly in 2014 following a rather turbulent 2013. However, recent comments by Indian officials may have rocked the boat. Speaking in New Delhi on Monday, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj emphasized a linchpin of India’s policy toward Beijing: “For India to agree to a one-China policy, China should reaffirm a one-India policy.” Ostensibly, what Swaraj means by a “One India” policy is an acknowledgment from Beijing that Arunachal Pradesh — a territory in India’s northeast administered as a state by the Indian government but regarded by Beijing as South Tibet — is a part of India. “When they raised with us the issue of Tibet and Taiwan, we shared their sensitivities. So, we want [that] they should understand and appreciate our sensitivities regarding Arunachal Pradesh,” Swaraj added.

Funnily enough, India’s last Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) government under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made a point of emphasizing that India acquiesced to a “One China” policy — an effort to sow better relations with Beijing. In 2010, analysts noted that a joint statement signed following a high-level meeting between India’s former prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and China’s former premier, Wen Jiabao, omitted any mention of India respecting the “One China” principle. Back then, New Delhi pressed Beijing to acknowledge Kashmir (not Arunachal Pradesh) as an integral part of India in exchange for a declaration of support for the “One China” principle. Beijing refused out of consideration for its “all-weather friend,” Pakistan. In 2013, India further extended its ambiguous position on the “One China” policy by refraining from including Tibet in a joint statement.

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