China has couched them in somewhat diplomatic tones but Beijing’s statements have been sharp and critical of how Malaysia has handled the situation after the Beijing-bound flight MH370 went missing on March 8.
Since that Saturday, China has pressured Kuala Lumpur to step up coordinating the search and rescue mission, share information frequently, and take care of the needs of the family members of the Chinese passengers on the flight; of the 239 people on the flight, now known to have cashed into the Indian Ocean, 154 were Chinese.
It is natural for a government to be worried about the fate of so many missing citizens, especially if the incident has grabbed world headlines.
Besides the not-so-veiled criticism of Malaysia, the Chinese government and state media expectedly gave wide publicity to what Beijing was doing in terms of contributing to the multi-national search and rescue mission.
There have been regular updates about what the Chinese government was doing – dispatching ships and aircraft, instructing merchant navy vessels to be part of the search, sending technical working groups and a special envoy to Kuala Lumpur to be part of the investigation and coordinate the flow of information.
But Beijing has sidetracked some of its own questionable decisions.
One, for example, was the satellite images released by China around March 12. The images showed some floating debris at a location in the South China Sea.
They were released by and posted on the website of China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.
The images captured by Chinese satellites showed three fragments in the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, in an area near its intended flight path – at least what was thought to the flight path initially.
A day later, it emerged that the images had no connection to be missing flight.
The first question was why did China release the images three days after they were captured? What were the reasons behind the delay?
Also, authorities here, according to Malaysian counterparts, did not inform Kuala Lumpur about the images.
China did not answer these questions in any convincing manner. The foreign ministry usually ready with its rhetoric against Malaysia had no clear answer to share about why these images were shared in the first place.
One more question has been repeatedly raised to the foreign ministry: why no senior Chinese leader has had the time to visit the angry family members of passengers staying in Beijing? It was specifically asked why was it that Premier Li Keqiang is yet to visit them?
Why only the Premier? Nobody from the powerful Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo – at the very top of the power hierarchy — has visited them yet.
The answer from the ministry was on expected lines: all senior leaders are very worried, Li has spoken to the Malaysian PM, President Xi Jinping has spoken to the Australian PM, the State Council (China’s cabinet) has instructed “all relevant departments” to do all they can and so on.
The onus for sure is on Malaysia to coordinate the search for the aircraft. Its handling has been messy and confusing.
But for China – which is not exactly known for releasing a continuous flow of credible information on mishaps and violent incidents that happen in the country – it is odd to say the least to sneakily heap all blame on Kuala Lumpur.
On Tuesday, the understandably frustrated and furious family members marched to the Malaysian mission in Beijing to vent their feelings and demand more answers.
Now, demonstrations and protest marches in are illegal in China. Even a hint of a gathering at a public place could provoke disproportionate response from Chinese authorities.
But on Tuesday, the protesters went right up to the mission, located in a high-security area where many other missions are located. Many wore matching T-shirts, carrying placards and printed banners. Of course, there were enough policemen around to not allow the situation become more volatile.
Question is would the Chinese government have allowed a high-profile protest and a march through the streets of Beijing had it been against the CPC-ruled government?