Sino-India ties fragile, need special care: Chinese envoy

New Delhi, Dec 13 (PTI) Ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao's
visit, China on Monday said its relations with India were
"very fragile" and needed special care and guidance from the
government to the public to avoid a war of words.
"China-India relations are very fragile and very easy to
be damaged and very difficult to repair. Therefore, they need
special care in the information age," Chinese envoy to India
Zhang Yan said at a conference here.
Observing that public perception was vital to the
development of relations, he said efforts should be made on
both sides to create an objective and friendly environment
based on mutual trust to ensure that there is no wrong
perception of each other.
"To achieve this, the government should provide guidance
to the public to avoid a war of words," Zhang said at the
conference on India-China relations organised by FICCI.
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who was present at
the conference, sought to assuage the feelings of the Chinese
envoy, by telling him that India has a "very commonsensical"
and "very rational" approach to China.
But at the same time, she highlighted the "vibrant and
noisy nature" of democracy to which the Chinese were exposed
in India.
"Often, our Chinese friends speak of a certain gulf in
appreciation of each country vis-a-vis the other, especially
when it comes to opinions of that are expressed in the media
of the two countries," Rao said.
"Our Chinese friends are increasingly exposed to the
vibrant, I would say, noisy nature of our democracy. The fact
that many schools of thought contend, many opinions are
expressed which are often at divergence with each other. But I
would urge them to understand that there is a certain very
commonsensical, very rational approach that we in India have
to China," she said.
"We see you as our largest neighbour, we regard in a real
sense and an absolute sense the importance of building bridges
with China, understanding China better, creating more of a
mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries,"
Rao said.
The Foreign Secretary said the betterment of relations
with China was of great importance not only to the Indian
leadership but also for the business and for the industry of
both the countries. MORE PTI