India may have underestimated Beijing's resolve: Chinese media

April 5, 2017

Beijing, Apr 5: India is using the Dalai Lama as a diplomatic leverage to challenge China's "bottom line", Chinese state media said today, threatening that New Delhi may have "underestimated" Beijing's determination to protect its core interests.

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The Chinese reaction to the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh came in an article in the state-run Global Times, which is part of the ruling Communist Party publications an is known for striking nationalistic postures.

"Beijing has voiced concerns over the issue, but New Delhi claimed that China shouldn't intervene in its 'internal affairs'," the article said, referring to Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju's comments yesterday.

"Thisis absurd," the article said. Rijiju has said India never interfered in Beijing's affairs, has respected the "One China" policy, and thus China should not interfere in India's internal affairs or object to the Dalai Lama's visit. "There is no political angle behind his holiness's visit to Arunachal Pradesh. It is completely religious." Separately, External Affairs Ministry has said that no "artificial controversy" should be created about the visit.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry is yet to react to Rijiju's comments or the External Affairs statement yesterday. However, the state media asked India to "overcome its suspicion" of Beijing. "China doesn't allow India to free ride on its economic growth while jeopardising Beijing's core interests."

It warned, "New Delhi may have underestimated Beijing's determination to safeguard its core interests. Many countries have pledged not to extend invitations to the Dalai Lama. As the two largest emerging economies, China and India have great potential for cooperation."

Today's article also accused India of playing the "Tibet card" as it is dissatisfied with Beijing's stance on India's bid for Nuclear Suppliers Group membership and its attempts to add Masood Azhar, the chief of Pakistan-backed militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), to a UN Security Council blacklist.

"Therefore, Delhi attempts to play the Tibet card against Beijing," it said, adding that "unlike his predecessors, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have taken a different stance on the Dalai issue, raising public engagements with the monk and challenging Beijing's bottom line," it said.

India and China have had discussions on the two issues, yet the matters are far from being resolved, leading to strain in ties. Also, China is sensitive to the visit of the Dalai Lama, who it calls an "anti-China separatist", to Arunachal's Tawang region which happens to be the birthplace in 1683 of the sixth Dalai Lama and is at the centre of Tibetan Buddhism.

China has in recent days upped its rhetoric on claims to parts of Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls southern Tibet, and even warned India of "serious damage" to ties if New Delhi allowed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader's visit to go ahead.

The article added, "India is also exploring the option of linking the strategic border district of Tawang with a railway network, another provocation against Beijing. India has also invited a 'parliamentary delegation from Taiwan in February'."

Citing other instances like the Dalai Lama's meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee in December, which Beijing sees as a "provocation", it quoted Rijiju as having said to an international news agency in an interview that "it's a behavioural change you are seeing. India is more assertive."

It said that the Dalai Lama is "now openly used by India as a diplomatic tool to win more leverage." Last night, another piece on the newspaper's website said India was using the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang "to upset" China.

An unnamed Chinese analyst told the newspaper that the 14th Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang will hurt Sino-Indian ties. "The Dalai's visit to the controversial area, especially Tawang, which China hopes will be returned, will affect relations between China and India," the analyst from the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the paper on the condition of anonymity.

The analyst too pointed out the religious significance of the Tawang to Tibetans, saying it's the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso. The analyst said this was not the first time India has used the Dalai Lama to express its displeasure to China, especially when bilateral talks fail to include their demands or to "pander to domestic anti-China issues".

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Mexico City, Aug 1: The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 688 to 46,688 within the past 24 hours, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said.

The number of victims in Mexico is now higher than in the United Kingdom, where 46,119 people have died of the disease. The largest number of fatalities - 153,311 - has been recorded in the United States, while Brazil comes second with 92,475 deaths.

Lopez-Gatell also said on late Friday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 8,458 to 424,637 over the past day.

A day earlier, the Latin American nation recorded 7,730 new cases of the coronavirus, with 639 fatalities.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, over 17.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 677,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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News Network
January 20,2020

Langkawi, Jan 20: Malaysia will not take retaliatory trade action against India over its boycott of palm oil purchases amid a political row between the two countries, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday.

India, the world’s largest edible oil buyer, this month effectively halted imports from its largest supplier and the world’s second-biggest producer in response to comments from Mahathir attacking India’s domestic policies.

“We are too small to take retaliatory action,” Mahathir told reporters in Langkawi, a resort island off the western coast of Malaysia. “We have to find ways and means to overcome that,” he added.

The 94-year-old premier of Muslim-majority Malaysia has criticised New Delhi’s new religion-based citizenship law and also accused India of invading the disputed region of Kashmir.

Mahathir again criticised India’s citizenship law on Monday, saying he believed it was “grossly unfair”.

India has been Malaysia’s largest palm oil market for the past five years, presenting the Southeast Asian country with a major challenge in finding new buyers for its palm oil.

Benchmark Malaysian palm futures fell nearly 10% last week, their biggest weekly decline in more than 11 years.

New Delhi is also unhappy with Malaysia’s refusal to revoke permanent resident status for controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who has lived in Malaysia for about three years and faces charges of money laundering and hate speech in India.

Mahathir said even if the Indian government guarantees a fair trial, Naik faces the real threat of vigilante action and that Malaysia will only relocate the preacher if it can find a third country where he would be safe.

“If we can find a place for him, we will send him out.”

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News Network
April 17,2020

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 2,425,000 people, according to official counts. So far at least 164,000 people have died, and the virus has been detected in at least 177 countries, as the following table shows.

United States 

780,330

37,782

Spain

200,210

20,852

Italy 

181,228

24,114

Germany

141,672

4,404

U.K.

124,743

16,509

France

114,657

20,265

Turkey

90,980

2,140

Mainland China

88,466

4,632

Iran

83,505

5,209

Russia

47,121

405

Brazil

40,743

2,587

Belgium

39,983

5,828

Canada

36,823

1,690

Netherlands

33,405

3,751

Switzerland

27,944

1,142

Portugal

20,863

735

India

18,539

592

Peru

16,325

445

Ireland

15,652

687

Austria

14,795

470

Sweden

14,777

1,580

Israel

13,713

177

Japan

10,915

168

South Korea

10,674

236

Chile

10,507

139

Saudi Arabia

10,484

103

Ecuador

10,128

507

Poland

9,593

380

Romania

8,936

478

Mexico

8,772

712

Pakistan

8,418

176

Singapore

8,014

11

Denmark

7,515

364

U.A.E.

7,265

43

Norway

7,156

181

Czech Republic

6,900

194

Indonesia

6,760

590

Serbia

6,630

125

Australia

6,625

71

Philippines

6,459

428

Belarus

6,264

51

Qatar

6,015

9

Ukraine

5,710

151

Malaysia

5,425

89

Dominican Rep.

4,964

235

Panama

4,467

126

Colombia

3,977

189

Finland

3,868

98

Luxembourg

3,558

75

Egypt

3,333

250

South Africa

3,300

58

Morocco

3,046

143

Bangladesh

2,948

101

Argentina

2,941

136

Thailand

2,792

47

Algeria

2,718

384

Moldova

2,548

70

Greece

2,245

116

Kuwait

1,995

9

Hungary

1,984

199

Bahrain

1,907

7

Croatia

1,881

47

Kazakhstan

1,852

19

Iceland

1,773

10

Uzbekistan

1,627

5

Iraq

1,574

82

Estonia

1,535

40

New Zealand

1,440

12

Azerbaijan

1,436

19

Oman

1,410

7

Armenia

1,339

22

Slovenia

1,335

77

Lithuania

1,326

37

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1,309

49

North Macedonia

1,225

54

Slovakia

1,173

13

Cameroon

1,163

42

Cuba

1,087

36

Ghana

1,042

9

Afghanistan

1,026

36

Hong Kong

1,025

4

Bulgaria

929

43

Tunisia

884

38

Ivory Coast

847

9

Djibouti

846

2

Cyprus

772

12

Latvia

739

5

Andorra

717

37

Lebanon

677

21

Nigeria

665

22

Costa Rica

662

6

Niger

648

20

Guinea

622

5

Albania

584

26

Burkina Faso

581

38

Kyrgyzstan

568

7

Bolivia

564

33

Uruguay

535

10

Kosovo

510

12

Channel Islands

488

24

Honduras

477

46

San Marino

462

39

West Bank & Gaza

449

3

Malta

431

3

Jordan

425

7

Taiwan

422

6

Georgia

402

4

Senegal

377

5

Congo

332

25

Mauritius

328

9

Montenegro

312

5

Sri Lanka

304

7

Isle of Man

300

9

Guatemala

289

7

Kenya

281

14

Vietnam

268

Venezuela

256

9

Tanzania

254

10

Mali

246

14

Somalia

237

8

Jamaica

223

5

El Salvador

218

7

Paraguay

208

8

Faroe Islands

185

Republic of the Congo

160

6

Rwanda

147

Brunei

138

1

Gibraltar

132

Cambodia

122

Madagascar

121

Gabon

120

1

Myanmar

119

5

Trinidad and Tobago

114

8

Ethiopia

111

3

Sudan

107

12

Liberia

99

8

Aruba

97

2

Monaco

94

3

Bermuda

86

5

Togo

84

6

Liechtenstein

81

1

Equatorial Guinea

79

Barbados

75

5

Maldives

69

Cape Verde

67

1

Sint Maarten

67

10

Cayman Islands

66

1

Guyana

65

7

Zambia

65

3

Bahamas

60

9

Haiti

57

3

Uganda

56

Benin

54

1

Libya

51

1

Guinea-Bissau

50

Macau

45

Sierra Leone

43

Eritrea

39

Mozambique

39

Syria

39

3

Chad

33

Mongolia

33

Nepal

31

Zimbabwe

25

3

Angola

24

2

Eswatini

24

1

Antigua and Barbuda

23

3

Timor-Leste

22

Botswana

20

1

Laos

19

Belize

18

2

Fiji

18

Malawi

17

2

Dominica

16

Namibia

16

Saint Kitts and Nevis

15

Saint Lucia

15

Curaçao

14

1

Grenada

14

Central African Republic

12

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

12

Falkland Islands

11

Greenland

11

Montserrat

11

Seychelles

11

Turks and Caicos Islands

11

1

Gambia

10

1

Nicaragua

10

2

Suriname

10

1

Vatican City

9

Mauritania

7

1

Papua New Guinea

7

Western Sahara

6

Bhutan

5

British Virgin Islands

5

1

Burundi

5

1

South Sudan

4

São Tomé and Príncipe

4

Anguilla

3

Yemen

1

 

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