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China deletes its envoy's remark on renaming CPEC

The move is seen as a diplomatic embarrassment for the ambassador to India

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Chinese envoy Luo Zhaohui and (right) the portions of his speech that were deleted
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Three days after the Chinese envoy's attempts to convince Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the One-Belt, One Road (OBOR) summit in Beijing on May 14-15 by offering to rename the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — a key component of OBOR — Beijing deleted this portion of his speech from the embassy website.

The move is seen as a major diplomatic embarrassment for the Chinese envoy, Luo Zhaohui.

Seeking to allay India's concerns, Luo had offered to rename the CPEC, which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, insisting it was an economic cooperation and connectivity enhancement project devoid of "sovereignty issues". He said that China has no intention to get involved in the sovereignty and territorial disputes between India and Pakistan and that the project is for promoting economic cooperation and connectivity in the region.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang skirted questions on why the portions of the speech were removed. "According to my understanding, the Chinese embassy in India released information about the ambassador's attendance and relevant activities. If you are interested, I suggest you use the Internet for more information," he said.

...& ANALYSIS

  • India’s reluctance has made it difficult for China to extend the OBOR network to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
     
  • Ahead of the OBOR summit, Chinese officials had increased their lobbying to get New Delhi to attend, before this move to delete the envoy’s remarks.
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