Beijing wants India to reaffirm the “One China” policy as it seeks to shore up regional support after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which triggered aggressive military drills by the Chinese military around the island.
“We hope that the Indian side could openly reiterate its One China policy like many other countries,” Sun Weidong, China’s ambassador to India, said in a post on the embassy’s website. “The One China principle is the political foundation of the China-India relations,” he said in a summary of his comments at a briefing in New Delhi on Saturday. More than 170 countries and international organizations have reaffirmed their commitment to the principle, he said.
India follows the “One China” policy and recognizes the government in Beijing only, but hasn’t mentioned it in bilateral documents or in public statements for a long time. Public sentiment toward China has soured in the wake of deadly border clashes between the two neighbors in 2020, the worst in four decades.
