14 Jun 2008, 0315 hrs IST, Bhaskar Roy ,TNN
NEW DELHI: Hardly two months before the Beijing Olympics, the top Chinese leadership has invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi to the Games in early August. Leaving behind the recent low in bilateral ties over border disputes, Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping has sent a personal invitation to Sonia to be in Beijing for the Games. During external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to China in early June, Jinping handed him a letter for the UPA chairperson inviting her to the Olympics. Jinping, tipped to be President Hu Jintao's successor, had a meeting with Mukherjee. Returning home, Mukherjee, according to Congress sources, personally delivered Jinping's letter to Sonia. However, it is not yet known whether the Congress president will visit Beijing during the Games. Despite sustained efforts by both sides, bilateral ties has run into bumps of late following Chinese claims over parts of Arunachal Pradesh and certain points on the Sikkim border. On its part, India too has used soft power and recalled the common cultural heritage to smoothen the relations. Mukherjee visited 97-year-old Sanskrit scholar Ji Xianlin in a Beijing hospital to confer the Padma Bhushan on him. Xianlin has translated the Ramayana into Chinese.
