It was an unexpected yet important statement, especially in the context of Washington seeking to build new bridges with New Delhi, with the purpose of countervailing Beijing’s overpowering influence in the region. China’s top envoy recently announced that Beijing was ready to help India crush its nagging Maoist insurgency that it one time directly promoted.
Chinese ambassador Sun Yuxi has said that Beijing did not even know why the Maoist guerrillas in India with strongholds in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh called themselves followers of the man who led the communists to victory in China in 1949.
“If there is any help [you expect] from us to India to get rid of them, we will try to do our best,” the diplomat told a news
agency. “We are also wondering why they call themselves Maoists. We don’t like that. We don’t like that at home. We don’t have any connection with them at home. If they call themselves Maoists, we can’t stop that way. But definitely it [the Maoist movement in India] does not have any connection with the government of China.”