Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 6, 2010
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/-Aggressive--China--leaves-India--others-worried/720864
China is "losing friends worldwide"
because of its "aggressive" posture, India's envoy to Beijing along
with those from Japan, EU and some African States, complained to the US, according
to a secret cable from the US embassy here released by WikiLeaks.
A new set of leaked cables published by London's
Observer newspaper Sunday showed that US Ambassador to Beijing, Jon Huntsman,
in a secret despatch on China's 'newly pugnacious' foreign policy, said Beijing
is "losing friends worldwide".
The European diplomats were "most vocal"
about China's aggressive posture in recent years, while Indian and Japanese
envoys voiced similar "complaints," Huntsman's cable said. "Numerous
third-country diplomats have complained to us that dealing with China has
become more difficult in the past year," the US envoy said in his February
report, quoting among others Indian Ambassador to China, S Jaishankar. In
his cable entitled "Stomp around and carry a small stick: China's new
'global assertiveness' raises hackles, but has more form than substance",
Huntsman accused Beijing of "muscle-flexing, triumphalism and assertiveness".
He said a British diplomat complained saying
that Chinese officials' behaviour at the Copenhagen climate change summit
last year was "shocking" and so rude and arrogant that the UK and
French complained formally.
Jaishankar requested closer cooperation with
the US because of "China's more aggressive approach," Huntsman's
cable said, adding Japanese diplomats complained that Chinese officials were
"aggressive and difficult" during climate summit preparations.
Reacting to references to Jaishankar's remarks
in Huntsman's cable, the Indian embassy here declined to comment.
A Japanese official described rising tensions
in the East China Sea, saying that "the increased aggressiveness of Chinese
'coastguard' and naval units... had provoked 'many dangerous encounters'".
The cable referred to another dispute between Norway and China over Oslo's
allegation of human rights violations in China. The ties between the two countries
worsened following the awarding of Nobel peace prize to Chinese dissident
Liu Xiaobo recently. In several cables, US diplomats noted China's growing
influence in Latin America and Africa. Juliu Ole Sunkuli, the Kenyan envoy,
"claimed that Africa was better off thanks to China's practical, bilateral
approach to development assistance and was concerned that this would be changed
by 'western' interference." But other cables suggested some African diplomats
felt "a degree of suspicion and resentment" about China's role.
A Nigerian official suggested poorer countries were "coerced" into
aid-for-resources deals.
