The CCP mouthpiece Global Times came out with an article on Thursday (15 April) titled “US not criticising India over human rights exposes hypocrisy” that desperately aimed at pointing out to the over hyped faux bubble of ‘India’s worrying human rights record’. Ironically, such statements by Chinese state media are perfect examples of the saying: “Pot calling the kettle black”.
All of a sudden, China showing concerns about the US, took up the noble initiative of warning her by highlighting the fact that “it‘s not in America‘s interest to become close partners with countries moving away from shared values.” Liu Zongyi also subtly reprimanded Biden by saying “Biden administration is rather restrained in speaking out against India‘s human rights violations” indicating a requirement of mid-course correction in consonance with American foreign policy.
Interestingly (as per the article), Global Times is not only a well wisher of the US but also for India as it points out the fact that “the Biden administration may use India‘s human rights issues as a bargaining chip, demanding India to make concessions at the economic level, or cooperate with the US”.
CHINESE DICHOTOMY
On 15 April itself, the Chinese embassy spokesperson Wang Xiaojian protested over the remarks made by US Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Phil Davidson and others in Raisina Dialogue about Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, by describing happenings in these regions as China’s internal affairs. “Making baseless and irresponsible remarks is not acceptable. We are firmly opposed to interference in China’s internal affairs by any country or anyone under any pretext,” he said.
In other words, conduct of systematic genocide by state, establishing rehab camps, human trafficking, organ harvesting & forced labours under state supervision, threatening by sending fighter aircrafts into ADIZ of another state, or curbing basic human rights of people by altering security laws & sending armed forces under that pretext are all internal affairs of China. However, passing of a bill in Indian Parliament regarding Indian Citizenship or management of farmers‘ produce in Indian market is definitely not an internal matter of India & China expects the US to come up with harsh comments on them. As such, China herself is absolutely justified in publishing Op-Eds on the topic in its state sponsored media.
REASON BEHIND THE RHETORIC
It does not require to be very erudite to fathom the reason behind China’s squealing. The past year has been awfully bad in almost every sphere. Putting the pandemic aside, which most of the global intelligentsia doubt to be a Chinese menace, China has taken a beating economically, geo strategically & even internally. But the Chinese heinous crimes that have caught the eye of everyone are its policies & HR violations against non-Han Chinese, be it the Uighurs, Tibetans or Mongols. In October last year, Germany led the statement of 39 countries including US, UK & Japan in expressing grave concern & condemning China over policies and Human Rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet & Hong Kong. Last month, EU, UK, US, Canada and other Western countries imposed sanctions on officials in China as a coordinated effort over HR abuses against the mostly Muslim Uighur minority group.
Similarly, Indian media has also been hyper vocal on China over these issues especially post Ladakh Standoff. As China failed to gain any upper hand over India in its Ladakh adventure and in fact, facilitated a strong alliance in the form of Quad, China wishes to kill two birds with a single stone by sponsoring such propaganda articles. One is to hide its own actions behind such stories & secondly to try & drive a wedge in between Indo-US relations that is all set to challenge its ambitions of hegemony in the Indo-Pacific Region.
Human Rights Watch in its annual report states, “This has been the darkest period for human rights in China since the 1989 massacre that ended the Tiananmen Square democracy movement”. “Since Xi Jinping came to power the repression has gotten worse and worse overall, in every aspect of Chinese society you can see how the party is becoming more intolerant of any kind of independent activity,” said HRW researcher Yaqiu Wang.
International response to worsening repression has made the rest of the world more confident in criticising China who until now were afraid of Chinese retaliation. 2020 provided them with ‘safety in numbers’, reflecting Beijing’s inability to retaliate against the entire world. In fact, this growing pressure did force Xi Jinping to bend as China for the first time revealed that 1.3 million Uighurs had gone through what it termed “vocational training centres”.
No wonder that China behaves like a sulking schoolboy who has been reprimanded by all while his bench mate continues to get a pat on his back for everything he does or doesn’t. No matter the number of complaints he raises, everything seems to fall against the deaf ears of school staff. China might be a bigger economy or hold a larger military, but it certainly knows that unchallenged hegemony in the South Asia & Indian Ocean Region will remain a distant dream till India continues to enjoy global support & moral ascendancy over China.
After all, Sun Tzu said, “Divide & Conquer” and Xi, like a worthy student, won’t leave any stone unturned to break the strong alliance between India and the US, even if it calls for propaganda and rumour mongering. Knowing the Chinese acumen in this field we are sure to see many more propaganda pieces coming up with different contents but same motive in the coming months with a willing whole hearted support from its sidekick—Pakistan.