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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s China visit for the SCO summit receives major coverage, highlighting India-China cooperation, Xi Jinping’s remarks, and bilateral talks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and his wife Peng Liyuan arrive for the Official Reception for Heads of States and Heads of Governments at the SCO, in Tianjin (X)
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached China after seven years to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet, the spotlight shone brightly on him, with Chinese state media giving significant coverage to the visit, highlighting both countries’ growing cooperation and proactive approach to foreign policy.
Additionally, reactions on Chinese social media showed a mix of optimism and doubt. While many users hailed PM Modi’s defiance of US trade pressure, some others remain sceptical of India and call for closer cooperation with Beijing.
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Here are some of the headlines of the Chinese media in their coverage of PM Modi’s visit to Tianjin.
The Global Times: The Global Times, a prominent state-run Chinese media outlet, published an article titled “China and India are cooperation partners, not rivals: Xi,” highlighting Jinping’s remarks about the bilateral meeting, saying, “as long as the two countries stick to this overarching direction, China-India relations can sustain steady and long-term growth.”
The news outlet further echoed Jinping’s remarks that China and India should become neighbours on good terms and partners helping each other succeed.
A “cooperative pas de deux of the dragon and the elephant” should be the right choice for the two countries, the news outlet reported, quoting Jinping’s oft-repeated phrase ’The dragon and the elephant’ as metaphors for China and India.
Xinhua: Another Chinese state-run media outlet, Xinhua, said that President Xi Jinping welcomed PM Modi to the SCO summit, emphasising the importance of the two countries viewing their bilateral ties from a strategic and long-term perspective, pursuing further improvement from the Tianjin meeting onward, and working for their sustained, sound, and steady development.
It also highlighted Jinping’s remarks, which frame India and China as two pillars of the Global South.
Apart from state media reports, Chinese journalists covering the summit also commented on the significance of the meeting.
Zhang Xiao, a Hindi-speaking Chinese journalist, pushed for deeper cooperation between the two nations.
Speaking in Hindi, she said, “We are neighbouring nations and leading developing countries of the world. We are two of the largest economies. Our trade cooperation is extensive…So, the opportunities are immense. We should not have tensions between us. We should join hands and work together…I believe China’s high technology is well-known across the world. We can cooperate on this.”
Chinese journalist Wu Lei, Chief Editor at China-based outlet CGTN, emphasised the importance of the leaders’ commitment to keep the border issue from overshadowing broader ties.
“Indian Prime Minister reaffirmed that the two countries should move on to boost their bilateral ties, and border issues shouldn’t be affecting the bilateral relations and the direct flights between the two countries are expected to resume and the hope to expand the collaboration from security to economic and people to people exchanges and as member states of the SCO as well as the BRICS collaboration. They are expected to share more responsibility as global South partners,” Wu said.
PM Modi-Xi Jinping Bilateral Talks
PM Modi and Xi Jinping held wide-ranging talks to reset the bilateral relations between India and China, which have been on the mend over the past two years since a major rift following the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes. This comes at a time even more significant amid a tariff tussle with the United States.
PM Modi spoke about border management as well as the resumption of flights between the two countries and the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. He said that the welfare of 2.8 billion people is linked to bilateral cooperation between India and China.
He said that India and China should pursue “strategic autonomy” and their relations should not be seen through a “third-country lens”. He and Jinping deemed it necessary to expand common ground on bilateral, regional, and global issues and challenges, like terrorism and fair trade in multilateral platforms.
Meanwhile, Jinping spoke about how the relationship between India and China should take the form of a “dragon-elephant” tango – a dance between their emblematic animals – and find a way to be “good neighbours” to each other, especially as they mark the 75th anniversary of their bilateral ties.
Jinping also stressed that the two Asian neighbours must ensure “peace and tranquillity in their border regions, and should not let the border issue define the overall China-India relations.”
(With inputs from agencies)
About the Author
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben…Read More
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben… Read More
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