China India Photo:VCG

Hundreds of posters celebrating the "national day" of Taiwan island hung outside China's Embassy to India in New Delhi will only exasperate already soured China-India ties, Chinese experts warned Saturday, urging India's ruling party to give up its irrational behavior and to realize it is playing with fire.

Local media reports said hundreds of posters wishing China's Taiwan island "a happy national day" were hung along streets in front of the embassy. Wording on the posters show they were arranged by Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga. 

The move came as Indian media advocated and supported the Taiwan island celebrating a "national day" and a spokesperson for the Indian foreign ministry defended India's media's right to publish its own views even if they don't respect the one-China policy.

The Chinese embassy on October 7 emailed India mainstream media urging them not to break with the long-time position of the Indian government's support of the one-China policy, which is viewed as a foundation for diplomatic relations. 

India's provocation on the Taiwan question will cause an "irreversible" impact on China-India ties, Chinese analysts said.

Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said "India is playing with fire by challenging the one-China policy." 

Through inciting anti-China sentiments domestically for the sake of its own interests on the Taiwan question and to rally support over border tensions, the Indian government is pushing away China as a good neighbor, Zhao said, noting India should not be surprised if consequences including plunging economic and people-to-people exchanges.

Chinese analysts pointed out that although the Indian government still openly adheres to the one-China policy, it often shrugs off the media coverage calling for breaks with the policy in the name of "freedom of the press."

The nationalist BJP has been unscrupulously provoking the Taiwan question under the surface of India-China ties, and has crossed China's bottom line as it plays the Taiwan card thinking it is a bargaining chip in dealing with China, Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Saturday. 

This provocation will not bring any good to India, and will only fuel soured bilateral tensions and even damage the established strategic partnership of the two countries, Hu said.

India has taken almost no action to deescalate tensions after the five-point consensus was reached last month in Moscow, and has instead reinforced its military deployment in the region. This has forced the Chinese military to prepare to handle any situation along the border, Chinese experts said earlier.