Why Chinese envoy told Indian scribe to 'shut up'

Chinese ambassador Zhang Yan got into a spat with a journalist here over wrong depiction of India’s map, with the diplomat asking the latter to “shut up”.

The map of India minus some parts of Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh was printed on the cover of a brochure of Chinese firm TBEA, which is part of a Chinese business delegation to India.

The delegation, being led by governor of China’s Xinjiang province Nuer Baikeli, is here to explore trade and investment opportunities and concluded a pact for investment in Gujarat.

The journalist, who noticed the discrepancy in the map, went up to Yan after business delegations briefing was over, and asked for his reactions.

Zhang, who apparently got miffed over the persistent queries over the issue, said, “shut up” and reportedly asked him not to do a story on it.

Consequently, the journalist shot back: “If you don’t want to answer, don’t, but how can you say shut up!”

As things turned ugly, officials from the Chinese embassy, the external affairs ministry and the Confederation of Indian Industry, who were the organisers, had to intervene to cool down the situation.

Later, as things calmed, Zhang tried to explain to the journalist that “shut up is not something that changes the nature of these things because we are handling this in a friendly way.”

“This is a technical issue. We handle these issues. Your joint secretary has mentioned and I have said that we will look into this. I have talked to our people. So what can I do for you,” the Chinese diplomat told the journalist.

Senior officials from the external affairs ministry said they had taken up the matter with the Chinese side who, in turn, assured them that “the mistake will be rectified”.

Officials on both sides said such things do happen and the “wrong” map was on the brochure of a “private firm” and not a state agency.