There\u2019s a war of narratives being fought between China and much of the rest of the world about how the Covid-19 pandemic began and who\u2019s responsible. Beijing has embarked on a misinformation campaign to try to erase its tracks and absolve itself of guilt by directing the blame onto other nations, especially the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s friendly diplomatic overtures to India are part of that effort, and are intended to persuade New Delhi to support Beijing\u2019s confected version of how and where the disease originated. So far, India has played along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Indian government hasn\u2019t publicly blamed any nation for causing the pandemic, though it has matter-of-factly acknowledged that the first case was reported in China. But that reflects typical Indian foreign policy behaviour rather than indicating any agreement with Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“67% of Indians polled blamed China for the pandemic and 50% said they believed that calling it the \u2018Chinese virus\u2019 wasn\u2019t racist.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Until a fortnight ago, relations between China and India were less than harmonious, particularly after the\u00a0frostiness<\/a>\u00a0that followed China\u2019s advocacy on Pakistan\u2019s behalf over the Kashmir issue at the United Nations last August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please click here to read the full \u201cChina\u2019s Covid-19 charm offensive isn\u2019t fooling India<\/a>\u201d article published at The Strategist<\/a>, written by Griffith Asia Institute<\/a> Research Assistant, Aakriti Bachhawat. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China is cranking up the charm offensive. But that\u2019s not to say that India is buying into the Chinese narrative or that it\u2019s ignorant of Beijing\u2019s real motives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[245,246],"tags":[716,284,1052,1087,1097,512],"class_list":["post-7141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china-and-north-east-asia","category-india-and-south-asia","tag-aakriti-bachhawat","tag-china","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-covid19-australia","tag-india"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Jill Moriarty","yoast_head":"\n
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